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Anthropic, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence startup co-founded by ex-leaders from OpenAI, has secured a whopping $100 million investment from SK Telecom (SKT) , one of South Korea’s premier mobile carriers. This announcement comes on the heels of Anthropic’s impressive $450 million Series C funding round just three months prior.
Previous Collaborations and Investments
Before this significant investment, SKT had already shown interest in Anthropic by participating in its Series C funding round through its venture capital division, SK Telecom Venture Capital (SKTVC). Additionally, Anthropic caught the attention of Germany’s software giant, SAP, which invested in the AI startup last month.
SKT’s Foray into Generative AI
By strategically investing in Anthropic, SKT marks its entry into the rapidly evolving generative AI domain. The collaboration between the two companies aims to co-create a multilingual large language model tailored for global telecommunications firms. Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s co-founder and chief science officer, will spearhead this initiative.
A Vision for AI in the Telco Industry
Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, highlighting SKT’s ambitious plans to leverage AI for transforming the telecommunications sector. The joint venture will benefit members of the Global Telco AI Alliance, including giants like Deutsche Telekom, e& and Singtel, by offering AI solutions tailored to their specific markets. The proposed language model will support multiple languages, including English, Korean, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish.
Anthropic’s AI System Claude
Established in 2021, Anthropic has been developing an AI system named Claude, akin to OpenAI’s Chat GPT. This system empowers businesses to handle various tasks, from searching and generating answers to automating workflows and processing text in natural conversations. The recent release, Claude Instant 1.2, integrates the strengths of Claude 2, the startup’s second-generation AI chatbot. For the telecommunications sector, Claude’s applications will encompass industry-specific customer service, marketing, sales, and interactive consumer applications.
A Synergistic Future
Ryu Young-sang, SKT’s CEO, emphasized the potential of combining SKT’s Korean language-based LLM with Anthropic’s robust AI capabilities. He envisions this collaboration as a stepping stone to establishing a dominant presence in the AI ecosystem alongside global telco partners.
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