Amazon Is Going Big On AI With One Of ChatGPT's Chief Competitors

Another day, another large tech company doubling down on generative AI research. In a recent blog post, Amazon announced that its cloud computing resource, Amazon Web Services (AWS), will become the primary training ground for ChatGPT competitor Anthropic. AWS has been available to the public for some time, providing computing power, database storage, and many other functions. It also offers pre-trained AI services that can perform large workloads using AWS Neuron SDK's advanced machine learning accelerators Trainium and Inferentia. So, it makes sense why Anthropic was drawn to the tech giant with its pre-established cloud services primed for generative AI research.

With the collaboration, Anthropic agreed to provide AWS customers access to future versions of its foundation models through Amazon Bedrock, the service used to build AI applications. In return, Amazon invested $4 billion into the AI company to receive a minor ownership position. Some perks from this deal include AWS customers gaining early access to new features before they launch. Additionally, a Generative AI Innovation Center composed of AI development experts was deployed to assist AWS customers using Anthropic models in their development.

Amazon has already implemented AI features in its products. For example, the company has rolled out AI-generated user reviews and content listings. But now Amazon thinks its collaboration with Anthropic will further enhance customer experiences with its generative AI. Anthropic has used Bedrock before but not as its primary provider. The e-commerce company noted that customers had already created useful applications with Anthropic models, including ones designed for producing market forecasts and creating research reports.

Amazon also noted a few other companies that have taken advantage of Anthropic's current models for their generative AI research. For example, travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet has used the models to "help customers plan epic trips and create life-changing experiences with personalized travel itineraries," according to Chris Whyde, senior vice president of Engineering and Data Science at Lonely Planet. It also noted that Anthropic's new and improved Claude 2 model could personalize content according to customer preference and provide pertinent travel information.

Investment management firm Bridgewater has also already used Claude 2 on Bedrock. The company stated that the tools allowed it to compute financial indicators, create intricate charts, and summarize the results. It noted that automating these tasks speeds up the research process.

Access to Amazon's cloud network as its primary source for AI training and the hefty chunk of change provided sets up Anthropic nicely for success. This collaboration could result in the Claude 3 model being significantly more advanced than its predecessor.