Michelle ThompsonAmazon plans to inject as much as $4 billion (equivalent to £3.3 billion) into the San Francisco-headquartered artificial intelligence company Anthropic, following a pattern similar to the previous collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI.
This marks the latest multi-billion-dollar investment in a competitive race among major tech companies to harness the potential of artificial intelligence.
Amazon, for instance, recently announced plans to utilize AI to enhance the conversational capabilities of its Alexa voice assistant.
Notably, Anthropic boasts its own counterpart to ChatGPT, named Claude.
Amazon asserts that this investment can lead to improved customer experiences.
Jim Hare of Gartner, a research firm, commented, “If you look at the world of generative AI, this is the beginning of the race.” He noted that Microsoft initially led the way in AI enthusiasm through its partnership with OpenAI, but now, other players are catching up. Hare stated, “Now we’re starting to see the other cloud providers investing more in generative AI, coming up with their own announcements, their own products, and I think the playing field is starting to level off. In other words, it’s no longer a Microsoft-OpenAI show only.”
Established in 2021, Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, is among the emerging AI startups vying with companies like Google DeepMind and OpenAI.
In addition to its online retail operations, Amazon is a major provider of cloud computing services, renting out computing power from its vast data centers to assist other companies with data storage and processing.
This collaboration means Anthropic can tap into Amazon’s substantial computing capabilities. In return, Amazon developers can leverage Claude 2, Anthropic’s latest foundational AI model, to create new applications for their customers and enhance existing ones.
Microsoft, which operates the Azure cloud computing platform, has a similar arrangement with OpenAI.
Shortly after Amazon’s announcement regarding an AI-powered upgrade for Alexa, OpenAI disclosed that users of chatGPT would be able to interact with it by voice and share images during conversations. This partnership with ChatGPT has allowed Microsoft to introduce several new AI-powered features for existing products, including Copilot, its intelligent assistant for Microsoft 365.
Nick Patience, lead AI analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, sees the deal with Anthropic as another sign of tech giants such as Amazon and Google seeking to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the profitable market for specialized AI chips. However, Patience notes that it’s uncertain whether these tech giants with substantial cloud computing power and budgets will ultimately dictate the direction of the AI sector.
Anthropic mentioned that Amazon would acquire a minority stake in the company. They plan to utilize Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia chips, designed specifically for generative AI applications, in the development of their new AI models. Anthropic also emphasized its commitment to the responsible development and deployment of AI, noting that both companies independently support a set of voluntary safety commitments led by the White House.
Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, had a meeting with the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street in May.
Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, held a meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as well as the leaders of DeepMind and OpenAI in May. The discussions revolved around potential AI-related risks, including disinformation, national security, and even “existential threats,” and explored the voluntary actions and regulatory measures necessary to address these concerns.
The UK government is taking a proactive stance in this regard and is hosting a global AI summit at Bletchley Park in southeast England in November. The government acknowledges that the emergence of AI represents a critical juncture in human history.
Recently, the government announced that the summit would primarily focus on “frontier AI,” referring to highly capable AI models that can outperform today’s most advanced models across a wide range of tasks. The summit aims to examine the risks associated with the potential misuse of AI, such as its role in biological or cyber-attacks.
The government emphasized that the emphasis on this type of AI arises from the urgent need for international collaboration in addressing the novel challenges and risks posed by advanced AI models. It aims to harness AI for tangible public good globally, ranging from advancements in healthcare to improvements in education.
