Google's partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

Britain’s title watchdog is opening a general investigation into Google’s business pinch artificial intelligence startup Anthropic

LONDON -- Britain’s title watchdog said Thursday it's opening a general investigation into Google’s business pinch artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to motorboat an first probe aft it sought input earlier this twelvemonth connected whether nan woody would stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to determine whether to o.k. nan woody aliases escalate its investigation.

“Google is committed to building nan astir unfastened and innovative AI ecosystem successful nan world," nan institution said. "Anthropic is free to usage aggregate unreality providers and does, and we don’t request exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded successful 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who antecedently worked astatine ChatGPT shaper OpenAI. The institution has focused connected expanding nan information and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed past twelvemonth to make a multibillion-dollar finance successful Anthropic, which has a celebrated chatbot named Claude.

Anthropic said it's cooperating pinch nan regulator and will supply “the complete image astir Google’s finance and our commercialized collaboration."

“We are an independent institution and nary of our strategical partnerships aliases investor relationships diminish nan independency of our firm governance aliases our state to partner pinch others,” it said successful a statement.

The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals arsenic finance money floods into nan manufacture to capitalize connected nan artificial intelligence boom. Last period it cleared Anthropic's $4 cardinal deal pinch Amazon and it has besides signed disconnected connected Microsoft's deals pinch 2 different AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.