Amazon is investing billions in Anthropic, challenging Microsoft in the process.

Amazon will invest up to $4bn (£3.27bn) in San Francisco based AI firm Anthropic, mirroring the earlier tie up between Microsoft and OpenAI.

It is the most recent investment worth billions of dollars in a competition between major technology companies to harness the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

Amazon has announced its intention to enhance the conversational capabilities of its Alexa voice assistant using artificial intelligence (AI).

Anthropic has its own ChatGPT rival called Claude.

Amazon stated that the investment has the potential to enhance customer experiences.

Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, was established in 2021. It is among the new wave of AI start-ups that have emerged to rival established firms such as Google DeepMind and OpenAI.

In addition to its online retail operations, Amazon is a significant player in the field of cloud computing services. Essentially, it offers the rental of computing power to other companies for data storage or processing purposes. This is facilitated through massive data centers filled with computers.

Anthropic will have the opportunity to utilize this immense computing power through collaboration.

Amazon developers will have the opportunity to utilize Claude 2, the most recent iteration of Anthropic’s foundational AI model, in order to develop fresh applications for their customers and improve upon the existing ones.

Microsoft, which operates a cloud computing business called Azure, has a similar arrangement with OpenAI.

And days after Amazon announced Alexa’s AI powered planned upgrade, OpenAI revealed on Monday that users of chatGPT would be able to ask it questions by speaking to it, and post images which could be referred to in conversations.

Microsoft’s collaboration with the creator of chatGPT has allowed them to unveil several new features for their existing products, leveraging AI technology. One of these features is Copilot, an intelligent assistant for Microsoft 365, which is set to be released on Tuesday.

Anthropic announced that Amazon plans to acquire a small portion of the company. They intend to utilize Amazon’s Trainium and Inferentia chips, which are specifically designed for generative AI applications, in order to create their upcoming AI models.

Anthropic expressed its belief in the responsible advancement and implementation of AI. The company stated that both organizations independently endorsed a series of safety commitments initiated by the White House.

In May, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, had a meeting with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, along with the leaders of DeepMind and OpenAI. The purpose of the meeting was to address the possible dangers associated with AI, such as disinformation, national security concerns, and even “existential threats.” They also discussed the necessary steps, both voluntary actions and regulations, to effectively handle these risks.

The UK government, who will be hosting a worldwide conference on AI at Bletchley Park in November, stated that the emergence of AI marks a pivotal moment in human history.

On Monday it announced the summit would primarily look at futuristic “frontier AI” – referring to highly capable AI models that can perform a wide variety of tasks better than today’s most advanced models.

The summit will specifically address the potential misuse of AI, such as its involvement in biological or cyber-attacks.

“The government stated that the emphasis on this particular form of artificial intelligence is motivated by a pressing necessity to engage in discussions about how countries can collaborate to address the unique challenges presented by these risks. This includes tackling the inappropriate use of models and harnessing AI for tangible and significant public benefits worldwide, such as finding cures for diseases and enhancing education.”