tech
A Tale of Two Anthropics
I spent Wednesday at an event space in East London packed full of developers. The occasion was Code w/ Claude: Anthropic’s first developer-focused event in Europe. It felt like a victory lap for a company that is reportedly now raising funds at a $900 billion valuation—a number that, if accurate, would surpass that of key rival OpenAI. Behind Anthropic’s meteoric rise are the developers who thronged the London hall this week, eating free lunch and dinner, and accepting complimentary mini computers. These power users spend far more money on Claude than the average person. In other words, they are Anthropic’s lifeblood, and the company has an incentive to keep them coming back for more.
TL;DR
- Anthropic hosted a developer event in London, highlighting AI's productivity benefits and Claude Code's features.
- Developers expressed enthusiasm for AI, viewing it as a renaissance in programming.
- Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark warned of AI's existential risks and the potential for rapid self-improvement.
- Clark stated that AI poses a 'non-zero' chance of killing everyone and predicted significant disruption.
- Anthropic's latest model, Claude Mythos, possesses nation-state-level cyber-offensive capabilities, showing advanced AI development.
- The company tailors its messaging, speaking differently to developers and policymakers about AI's risks and capabilities.