ChatGPT and Bard Get New AI Chatbot Rival: Anthropic Debuts Claude 2
The new AI chatbot is available to people in the US and UK in open beta. Here's how to try it.
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Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is making its AI chatbot available to the public for the first time, setting up a new rival to chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. In a blog post Tuesday, Anthropic said the new version of its AI chatbot, Claude 2, is easier to converse with than its previous model and able to produce longer responses.
Claude 2 is available in beta to the public starting Tuesday, though earlier versions were already being integrated into products from businesses including Slack and Zoom. Like other generative AI chatbots, Claude 2 is powered by a large language model, which lets it respond to questions and prompts in natural language. Anthropic says Claude 2 is able to summarize text, write documents and help with tasks like coding and math.
Since the arrival of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022, tech companies have released a flood of generative AI tools to the masses. With prompts, modern chatbots can produce email responses, travel itineraries and even poetry, among other things, though quality varies. These tools, trained on vast amounts of information, are programmed to identify patterns and then generate plausible-sounding answers.
See also: ChatGPT vs. Bing vs. Google Bard: Which AI Is the Most Helpful?
Chatbots, however, are prone to spitting out incorrect answers and sometimes sources that don't exist. The rapid adoption of these tools has also raised concerns over potential problems, including spreading misinformation and deepening bias. Anthropic on Tuesday said Claude 2 is "less likely to produce harmful outputs" than its predecessor.
"We've been iterating to improve the underlying safety of Claude 2, so that it is more harmless and harder to prompt to produce offensive or dangerous output," reads the blog post.
The chatbot is available now in open beta in the US and UK, and Anthoripc said it plans to make Claude 2 globally available in the coming months.
How to try AI chatbot Claude 2
If you're interested in seeing how Claude 2 compares with other publicly available chatbots like ChatGPT, Bard or Microsoft's Bing, head to Claude.ai.
You'll be prompted to enter an email address or sign in with Google. There's also a small notice reminding you that Claude 2 is currently in beta and that some features may be limited for free users. You'll also be prompted to agree to the company's terms, acceptable use policy and privacy policy.
Before using Claude, you'll have to click through a handful of informational pages, including reminders that the chatbot isn't intended to give "legal, financial, and medical advice," and that some conversations may be reviewed to improve the company's safety systems.
Once you get to the chatbot, you can start typing in prompts or questions. Anthropic offers some suggested prompts, such as "summarize this PDF document in a bullet point outline" and "help me practice my Spanish vocab."
For more on artificial intelligence, check out how AI is transforming education and learn how to sign up for Google's new AI search engine.
Editors' note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.