Anthropic's New iPhone App and Business Tier

Anthropic introduced its first enterprise offering and a free iPhone app, marking a significant milestone for the generative artificial intelligence startup. The company, well-known for its chatbot Claude, has attracted significant attention and financial backing, including from tech giants like Google, Salesforce, and Amazon. With five funding rounds totaling about $7.3 billion over the past year, Anthropic is stepping into the enterprise sector with its new service called Team.

Team, developed over the last few quarters, has undergone beta-testing with 30 to 50 customers across various industries such as technology, financial services, legal services, and healthcare. According to Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei, the Team plan is designed to meet the needs of business users who have already been using Claude at the office.

For $30 per user per month, the Team plan offers access to all three of Anthropic’s latest Claude models, along with increased usage limits, admin tools, and billing management. It also includes features like a longer "context window" for multi-step conversations and the ability to upload long documents such as research papers and legal contracts for processing. 

The company also announced the launch of its first iOS app, which is free for users across all plans. The app provides syncing with web chats and enables users to upload photos and files directly from their smartphones. Anthropic has plans to release an Android app in the future, with the hiring of its first Android engineer underway.

Anthropic's growth has been impressive, especially since the debut of Claude 3, a suite of AI models that outperformed competitors like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini Ultra. With the launch of Team and the iOS app, Anthropic is poised to expand its reach in both the enterprise and consumer markets, competing directly with ChatGPT.

Despite the rapid growth of the generative AI field, concerns about bias and ethical implications persist. Anthropic, like OpenAI, has strict guidelines on the use of its AI models, particularly regarding the development of weapons or any activity that may cause harm. According to Amodei, Anthropic's acceptable use policy prohibits the use of Claude for activities that could lead to violence or harm.