Claude AI is an artificial intelligence model that can act as a chatbot and an AI assistant, much like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Named after Claude E. Shannon, sometimes referred to as the “father of information theory,” Claude was designed to assist with writing, coding, customer support and information retrieval.
Claude was developed by Anthropic, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees focusing on AI safety and research. Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, had served as vice president of research at OpenAI. His sister, Daniela Amodei, serves as Anthropic’s president.
Anthropic has drawn significant investment from prominent tech players. Since 2023, Amazon has invested a total of $8 billion in the company. As part of the agreement, Anthropic has committed to using Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider and making its AI models accessible to AWS customers. The 2024 deal includes plans to expand the use of Amazon’s AI chips for training and running Anthropic’s large language models. Google initially invested $500 million and plans to invest another $1.5 billion in the future.
Here’s everything you need to know about Claude AI.
How does Claude AI work?
Claude AI is a versatile tool capable of answering questions, generating creative content like stories and poems, translating languages, transcribing and analyzing images, writing code, summarizing text, and engaging users in natural, interactive conversations. It is available on desktop via web browsers and iOS and Android apps.
Claude uses large language models trained on a massive dataset of text and code to understand and generate human-like language.
However, unlike other chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot and Perplexity, Claude is a self-contained AI model that can’t access real-time internet or retrieve information from web links. Instead, it generates responses based solely on the data it was trained on.
Key features of Claude AI
Conversational adaptability is one of its coolest features. Claude AI adjusts its tone and depth based on user queries. Its ability to ask clarifying questions and maintain context over extended exchanges makes it useful for both casual and complex conversations. That is one of the reasons why our editors named it CNET’s best chatbot of 2024.
The platform also offers APIs that users can integrate into various tools and workflows.
The Claude models
The initial version of Claude was released in March 2023, followed by Claude 2 in July 2023, allowing for more extensive input processing. Then, in March 2024, Anthropic introduced Claude 3, comprising three models: Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus, each optimized for different performance needs. In October 2024, Haiku and Sonnet were upgraded to 3.5 models, while Opus still runs on model 3.
Haiku is meant for quick and simple tasks where speed matters most. Sonnet balances speed and power for everyday use, and Opus handles advanced tasks like mathematics, coding and logical reasoning. With the release of the Claude 3.5 Haiku model, Anthropic claims it “matches the performance of Claude 3 Opus.”
Each Claude model has a specific knowledge cut-off date, meaning it may not provide accurate information about more recent events. For example, Claude 3 Opus was trained on data up until August 2023, Claude 3.5 Sonnet until April 2024 and Claude 3.5 Haiku until July 2024. While Anthropic continually updates Claude’s data to enhance its capabilities, users should be aware of these limitations.
In October 2024, Anthropic’s improved version of Claude 3.5 introduced a beta feature called computer use. Claude could perform tasks such as moving the cursor, clicking buttons and typing text, effectively mimicking human-computer interactions.
In November 2024, Anthropic introduced the Model Context Protocol to its Claude desktop app, enabling the chatbot to browse the internet and manage files on users’ computers. This open-source protocol allows Claude to interact with various platforms and streamline integration by eliminating the need for custom code. It is currently available in a developer preview for both free and paid users on Mac and Windows.
Claude currently supports PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB, JSON and XLSX. However, it has file limits within chat uploads, such as 30MB per file, up to 20 files per chat and visual analysis for PDFs under 100 pages. For detailed limits, check Anthropic’s support page.
The “constitutional AI” approach
Claude AI’s distinguishing feature compared to other generative AI models is its focus on “ethical” alignment and safe interactions. On Nov. 11, 2024, Dario Amodei joined Lex Fridman for a two-and-a-half-hour podcast to discuss AI. During the conversation, he said, “It is incredibly unproductive to try and argue with someone else’s vision.” So, he founded his own company to demonstrate that responsible AI implementation can be both ethical and profitable.
The “constitutional AI” framework aligns Claude’s behavior with human values. This approach uses a predefined set of principles, or “constitution,” to guide the AI’s responses, reducing the risk of harmful or biased outputs while ensuring its responses remain useful and coherent. The constitution includes guidelines from documents like the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Claude plans and pricing
Anthropic offers a variety of pricing plans. There is a free option if you want to test Claude without commitment. For those seeking enhanced capabilities for individual users, the Claude Pro subscription is available at $20 per month, providing enhanced usage limits and priority access to new features.
For teams, it offers an annual plan priced at $25 per member per month, billed annually, with a minimum requirement of five members. There is also an Enterprise plan for large-scale deployments, with customized pricing and features tailored to the specific needs of businesses and organizations.
Additionally, Anthropic provides access to its AI models through an API, with pricing based on usage. For example, the Claude 3.5 Haiku model is priced at 80 cents per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens. Tokens are text fragments (words, parts of words, or punctuation) AI models use to process and generate language, with pricing reflecting the amount of information handled.