Claude in the Google Cloud while OpenAI tops 400m users: AI news roundup

As has rapidly become the norm, there’s been another flurry of developments in the AI space this week. Here’s a look at what’s been going on.

Anthropic’s hybrid reasoning model, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, is now available on Vertex AI, the machine learning platform in Google Cloud that lets users build AI applications.

According to Anthropic, Claude 3.7 Sonnet is the first hybrid reasoning model, meaning that it differs from LLMs in the way that it processes information, generates responses and handles reasoning. Hybrid reasoning models are billed as more reliable, trustworthy and transparent than LLMs, and therefore better suited to high-stakes applications. 

Said Kate Jensen, Head of Revenue at Anthropic: “Whether developing complex software solutions, delivering customer experiences, or conducting strategic analysis, Claude on Vertex AI helps teams to tackle their most challenging business problems with enterprise-grade reliability." 

Google has provided some ways in which customers are using Claude. For example, global energy company AES is using Claude on Vertex AI to increase the accuracy and speed of its health and safety audits, with Claude-powered agents completing work that previously took 14 days to finish in only one hour. And Palo Alto Networks is speeding up its software development and security by using Claude on Vertex AI, seeing a 20% to 30% increase in feature development and code implementation.

Anthropic is backed by Amazon and Alphabet.

OpenAI, which this week reported it has topped 400 million users worldwide, has teamed up with the Estonian government in a world-first initiative to give ChatGPT Edu - ChatGPT for education systems - to all Estonian secondary school children.

The initiative, which starts in September, is part of the country’s AI Leap 2025 programme to integrate AI capabilities into education, by providing free AI tools and a framework for their use in learning. OpenAI hopes that ChatGPT Edu will provide students with personalised tutoring, AI study aids and feedback and also help teachers with planning, admin and student support.

OpenAI says that Estonia is already in the top 15 countries globally for ChatGPT usage with one active ChatGPT account for every four citizens. Aggregated usage data shows Estonians use ChatGPT primarily for tutoring and teaching, computer programming and writing.

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has launched Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup that promises to combine AI with human reasoning and to focus on ethical, responsible, and human-centric AI. 

Murati already has a team of 30 key people in place, alumni of companies like OpenAI, Meta and Mistral, and is reportedly in talks with potential investors to raise up to $1 billion initially. 

In a blog post this week, the Thinking Machines Lab team said they plan to make AI systems more widely understood, customisable and generally capable. The post says that knowledge of how frontier AI systems are trained is concentrated within the top research labs, limiting both the public discourse on AI and people's abilities to use AI effectively. It says: “We'll focus on understanding how our systems create genuine value in the real world.”