Anthropic, one of the other AI companies founded by ex-OpenAI research executives, announced the release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet on Thursday. This new model is being hailed as the company’s most powerful AI system yet, marking a significant milestone in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. As part of the Claude family of chatbots, which includes competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is set to enhance user experience with improved speed and capabilities.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the latest addition to Anthropic’s portfolio, following the launch of the Claude 3 series in March. This model is touted as being twice as fast as its predecessor, Claude 3 Opus, which was previously described by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei as the “Rolls-Royce of models.” The new model promises significant improvements in understanding nuance, humor, and complex instructions – Anthropic notes that it can “accurately transcribe text from imperfect images,” amongst others.
Users can access Claude 3.5 Sonnet for free via the company’s website, Claude.ai, and through the Claude iPhone app. However, Claude Pro and Team subscribers gain enhanced access with higher rate limits, allowing for more extensive use of the model’s capabilities. This approach ensures that a wide range of users can benefit from the advanced features of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, while those with higher demands can opt for subscription plans to meet their needs.
“Today, we’re launching Claude 3.5 Sonnet—our first release in the forthcoming Claude 3.5 model family. Claude 3.5 Sonnet raises the industry bar for intelligence, outperforming competitor models and Claude 3 Opus on a wide range of evaluations, with the speed and cost of our mid-tier model, Claude 3 Sonnet,” Anthropic noted in a statement. “Claude 3.5 Sonnet is now available for free on Claude.ai and the Claude iOS app, while Claude Pro and Team plan subscribers can access it with significantly higher rate limits. It is also available via the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. The model costs $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, with a 200K token context window,” the firm added.
Alongside the release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Anthropic unveiled a new feature called “Artifacts.” This tool allows users to ask the Claude chatbot to generate text documents or code, which can then be opened in a dedicated window for real-time editing and collaboration. Artifacts are expected to be particularly useful for professionals involved in code development, legal contract drafting, and business report writing, providing a dynamic and interactive workspace that enhances productivity.
The release of Claude 3.5 Sonnet comes amid an intense competitive environment in the generative AI market. Companies like OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta are all racing to develop and integrate advanced AI technologies to capture market share in an industry projected to exceed $1 trillion in revenue within the next decade. Anthropic has jumped into the arena as well – in May, the firm introduced its first enterprise offering, “Team,” developed in response to feedback from beta testing with 30 to 50 customers across various industries such as tech, financial services, legal services, and healthcare.
