At AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas on November 28, 2023, Dan Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, engages in a conversation with Adam Selipsky, the CEO of Amazon Web Services. The interaction was captured in Todd Bishop’s GeekWire File Photo.
Anthropic, a prominent privately held AI company, is actively competing with OpenAI in the realm of conceptual AI. The company is now broadening its presence in the Seattle area, considering it as a potential hub for new recruits, with over 20 job openings available. Apart from Seattle, Anthropic is also targeting recruitment in New York City, London, and its headquarters in San Francisco.
Several individuals from the Seattle region have recently joined Anthropic, including Brian Delahunty, who assumed the role of Engineering Director in September. Delahunty, previously associated with Nearside and Stripe in executive capacities, brings valuable experience to the team. Andy Stewart, a seasoned professional who co-founded Olis Robotics in Seattle, has also joined Anthropic, leveraging his managerial background at Cruise and Amazon. Sophia Porter, with nearly five years at Blue Origin, joined the company last month, along with Tim Sullivan, the former Vice President of Architecture at Panopto, who brings over 12 years of experience from Microsoft. Additionally, Mitchell Wortsman, a member of the technical team, joined in January, holding a Ph.D. from Google and a D. fellowship from the University of Washington.
The physical presence of Anthropic in the Seattle area is becoming increasingly noticeable, reflecting the company’s commitment to the region. Anthropic’s collaboration with Seattle tech giant Amazon has been reinforced by Amazon’s substantial investment of up to $4 billion in the company. This investment solidifies Amazon Web Services as Anthropic’s primary cloud provider.
In a similar vein, Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, has made significant investments in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, amounting to billions. Microsoft extensively utilizes its cloud computing resources, including Azure, in its operations and extends these resources to support OpenAI.
The recent launch of Anthropic’s flagship generative AI product, Claude, has garnered significant attention. Backed by Google and having recently secured over $7 billion in funding, Claude has surpassed OpenAI’s GPT-4 in terms of efficiency. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy commended the release, recognizing its innovative capabilities.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI are leading the charge in the realm of conceptual AI, enabling rapid generation of diverse content types from simple prompts like text, images, videos, and application code. The business models of these companies are under scrutiny by owners and regulatory bodies, leading to ongoing legal battles.
Seattle has emerged as a prominent hub for AI technology, fueled by the technological prowess of Microsoft and Amazon in cloud computing. The city’s ecosystem includes collaborations with entities like OpenAI, Anthropic, the Allen Institute for AI, the AI2 Incubator, and the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science at the University of Washington, further solidifying its position in the AI landscape.
