Amazon-backed Anthropic launches its Claude AI chatbot across Europe

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup backed by Amazon, said Monday that it is launching its generative AI assistant Claude in Europe on Tuesday. It will be available to individuals and businesses via the web and an iPhone app.

A paid subscription-based version of Anthropic’s Claude assistant, called Claude Pro, will be available to users who want access to all of its models, including the Claude 3 Opus, Anthropic’s most advanced offering.

Anthropic is also launching its business-oriented Claude Team subscription plans, which cost €28 ($30) per month before value-added tax (VAT).

“We designed Claude with a strong commitment to accuracy, security and privacy,” said Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, in a statement on Tuesday.

AI is advancing rapidly, and employees are concerned about the impact on jobs and privacy.

The European Union Parliament earlier this year adopted the world’s first major set of regulatory ground rules to govern the new technology. The AI ​​Act aims, among other things, to identify and apply rules according to the levels of risk posed by AI, dividing the risk categories into low, medium, high and unacceptable.

Anthropic said his assistant Claude is fluent in French, German, Italian, Spanish and other European languages.

While Claude.ai is already available for free on both the web and mobile devices in the UK, Anthropic says this is the first time the product has been rolled out to users in the EU and non-EU countries such as Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.

Anthropic has quickly become one of the loudest and most hyped generative AI companies on the market, with investors valuing the firm at a whopping $18.4 billion back in March. This month, Amazon announced a $2.75 billion investment in the startup, bringing the company’s total investment to date to $4 billion.

Amazon’s investment in Anthropic has raised concerns from some regulators, who worry it could reduce the company’s independence.

In the UK, regulators are evaluating whether Amazon’s investment and partnership with Anthropic and Microsoft’s deals with generative AI firms could constitute effective mergers that could reduce competition.

Amazon says its partnership with Anthropic represents a limited corporate investment, not a merger. Microsoft denies its deals with AI startups OpenAI and Mistral, and the hiring by Inflection is tantamount to a merger.