OpenAI rival Anthropic launches its first smartphone app

Dario Amodei, former OpenAI employee turned Anthropic CEO, at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. Kimberly White/Getty

• Anthropic has launched a mobile app for its AI chatbot, Claude.
• The app, a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, allows users to sync conversations and analyze photos.
• Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, does not currently have an Android version.

OpenAI rival Anthropic launched its first smartphone app on Wednesday, a mobile version of its artificial intelligence chatbot called Claude.

The app allows users to sync their conversation with their desktop activity. It also lets users to take or upload photos and use the app to analyze them. Both of these features are available on rival ChatGPT.

Anthropic also launched a team plan for Claude, which gives corporate users more chats than Pro users and access to collaborative tools. ChatGPT offers a similar plan for business users.

Claude is a direct competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was launched in late 2022 and exploded in popularity. ChatGPT released its iOS app last May and has faced little competition in the smartphone market — until now — as one of the few AI models with a consumer app.

Both ChatGPT and Claude have similar pricing: about $20 per month for premium versions. One of the main differentiators between the apps is voice chat and image generation. ChatGPT allows both, while Claude does not.

Anthropic has not detailed plans for launching on Android yet. Claude is not available in Canada or European Union countries.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at OpenAI. The startup quickly drew major backers including Amazon and Google, both of which have their own AI chatbot projects.

Amazon invested $1.25 billion into Anthropic last year and pledged an additional $2.75 billion in March. The partnership, which gives Amazon minority ownership in the startup, was seen as the tech juggernaut’s power move in the ongoing AI wars.

Anthropic said it will use Amazon Web Services’ cloud servers and chips to train and power its large language models, allowing them to produce human-like outputs.

OpenAI, meanwhile, is backed by Microsoft and, most recently, venture capital investors Thrive Capital, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and K2 Global, in a February deal.

If you enjoyed this story, be sure to follow Business Insider on Microsoft Start.