Google ups the AI ante with investment in ChatGPT rival Anthropic
Google has ramped up efforts to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT by investing in a rival generative AI startup.
Per Financial Times, Google confirmed it had invested over $300 million for a 10 percent stake in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company that was founded by former employees of OpenAI. Google and Anthropic declined to provide details about the investment, but in a separate statement, Anthropic announced a partnership with Google Cloud to scale its AI computing systems.
OpenAI's chatbot ChatGPT has swiftly taken over the generative AI conversation. Since the new application was released in December, it has been used by Tinder users to message matches, by students to write (i.e. plagiarize) essays, and write malware code and generally stir up conversations around ethical use, copyright laws, and automation of labor.
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In January, Microsoft invested $10 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which is now rumored to eventually power Microsoft's search engine Bing — a distant second place to Google's search engine. ChatGPT's release and subsequent popularity was enough for Google executives to declare a "code red," according to the New York Times.
Later this week (February 8), Google is hosting an event related to Search and Maps, which has the internet speculating about some kind of ChatGPT-related announcement. The details of the announcement are unknown, but the event's description says, "We're reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need."
Regardless of what Google announces on Wednesday, it's clear that the tech giant sees ChatGPT as a major threat.
Cecily is a tech reporter at Mashable who covers AI, Apple, and emerging tech trends. Before getting her master's degree at Columbia Journalism School, she spent several years working with startups and social impact businesses for Unreasonable Group and B Lab. Before that, she co-founded a startup consulting business for emerging entrepreneurial hubs in South America, Europe, and Asia. You can find her on X at @cecily_mauran.
