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While OpenAI’s ingenious conversational offering ChatGPT has captured the attention of the world with its human-like responses and plethora of use cases, several other AI-powered chatbots too have been making waves. One such chatbot that has been gaining traction over time for its distinctive features and capabilities is Claude 2.
Who has developed Claude, and what can it do?
Claude is a group of large language models (LLMs) developed by Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Italian American siblings Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, both of whom were formerly with OpenAI.
The chatbot is capable of handling text, voice messages, and documents. Reviews by The Indian Express have shown that the chatbot is capable of generating faster, contextual responses compared to its peers.
Claude has some limitations compared to ChatGPT or Google Gemini, mainly when it comes to access to the Internet and extensions. But what sets Claude apart is the fact that it is built on “Constitutional AI”, which allows developers to lay down a ‘constitution’ — a set of values that the system must follow — so that a distinction is created between what the AI can do in terms of tech capability, and what it should do in terms of politically and socially responsible actions.
How has Claude been trained?
Claude, which advocates for AI models to be harmless assistants to help with various activities, has been trained on various sources including the Internet and some licensed datasets using two methods: supervised learning (SL) and reinforcement learning (RL).
In the SL phase, the LLM produces responses to prompts, and then self-assesses them based on a set of guiding principles. It later revises the responses — and according to its makers, this process is aimed at reducing the harmful effects of the AI’s outputs.
The RL phase involves training the model based on AI-generated feedback, in which the AI evaluates responses based on a set of constitutional principles. These methods, and the general approach, has been chosen with the aim of making Claude helpful and harmless.
When was Claude launched?
The Amodei siblings set up their company, Anthropic, 2021, along with five other co-founders, all of whom also worked previously at OpenAI. Dario Amodei, now CEO of Anthropic, was vice president for research at OpenAI, and Daniela, president of Anthropic, was VP for safety and policy. Long before the launch of ChatGPT, the siblings were already concerned that AI should not be out of line with human values.
In March 2023, Anthropic launched Claude V1, showcasing some impressive abilities in terms of maths, reasoning, and coding capabilities. Subsequently, the company launched Claude Instant, Claude V2, and Claude V2.1.
Claude V2.1, which was launched in July 2023, became the first to have a context window of 1,00,000 tokens, equivalent to 75,000 words. This meant that a user could use the entire text of, say, F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ (which has around 48,000 words), as a prompt. This led Claude to overtake the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard (now Gemini).
The latest version incorporates some significant improvements over previous iterations. For instance, Claude 2 reportedly scored above the 90th percentile on the GRE writing and reading exams. The chatbot also scored close to 71.2 per cent in maths and coding.
So how does Claude 2.1 compare with ChatGPT?
There are some clear differences in terms of performance, features, reasoning capabilities, and token capacity, etc.
* Claude is trained on Anthropic’s Constitutional AI, while ChatGPT is based on OpenAI’s proprietary LLMs GPT-3 and GPT-4, which have been trained using machine learning and reinforcement techniques to essentially identify patterns and respond.
* ChatGPT is currently available in more than 159 countries; Claude is available in 80-odd countries.
* Both ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro are priced at $20 per month.
* ChatGPT has a token limit of more than 8,000; Claude’s is a much higher 2,00,000.
* ChatGPT gives access to the Internet and extensions; Claude supports neither.
* ChatGPT can process and interpret images with its ChatGPT Plus version. Claude does not have this feature.
* For any AI chatbot, possessing factual understanding and logical reasoning is key. While ChatGPT surpasses Claude in this regard, the latter is often good at logical reasoning.
* Claude beats ChatGPT at processing time: the average response time is 5 seconds. The average processing time for ChatGPT has been reported to be much more, around 30 seconds. The Indian Express reviews found Claude to be faster than ChatGPT.
* When it comes to knowledge base, ChatGPT is claimed to have a cutoff date of January 2022 — which means it cannot access information after that. Anthropic claims that Claude has been trained on vast data that included information about latest events, and that it improves itself with the help of the data received from users.
* The Indian Express review asked the two chatbots who the President of the United States was, and got the following responses:
ChatGPT: As of my last update in January 2022, I cannot provide real-time information. Please consult a reliable news source to find out the current President of the United States.
Claude: As of February 2023, Joe Biden is the President of the United States. He assumed office on January 20, 2021.
So, is Claude 2 better than ChatGPT?
It must be understood that ChatGPT and Claude have been developed to cater to different segments of the AI market. ChatGPT’s strength lies in its multimodality and ability to handle complex tasks, while Claude 2.1 is more focussed on language processing, and emphasises user safety.
One of the most crucial features of Claude is its ability to summarise PDFs, and clean transcripts of conversations that run into thousands of words. Be it large-sized PDFs of scientific papers, legal documents, or novels, Claude can answer questions about specific data points effortlessly. It is possible to engage with the document, ask for specific trends, quotes, and commission tasks such as ‘Write a theme-based essay from the document.’
A major use case is Claude’s efficiency at cleaning and organising transcripts of conversations of interviews, speeches, and audio recordings — for free. ChatGPT does not allow you to upload documents in the free version.
Claude can handle PDFs as big as 10MB, and also formats such as .docx, .csv, and .txt. The user has to simply upload the document and ask Claude to, say, “summarise this document”, or “share 10 key points” from the conversation or presentation.
How can you try out Claude?
* Go to claude.ai and enter your email address. Enter the verification code sent to your email.
* Enter your name and agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.
* Enter your phone number, and another verification code sent to it.
* Read and agree to the disclosures about Claude AI’s capabilities and limitations.
* Press the paper clip icon on the right side of the chat box to upload a file.
* Select the file you want to upload from your device.
* Type a command and hit enter.
