Anthropic launches Claude 3.5 Sonnet, a new AI model that is 3 times faster than previous models released 3 months ago

AI startup Anthropic on Thursday announced the release of its latest artificial intelligence model, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, along with a new user-friendly layout aimed at enhancing productivity. This launch is the latest in a series of rapid advancements in the AI industry, as companies race to push the boundaries of technology.

The introduction of Claude 3.5 Sonnet comes just three months after the Amazon and Google-backed Anthropic released its Claude 3 family of AI models. According to Anthropic, the new Sonnet model is significantly faster—boasting speeds three times faster than its predecessor, Claude 3 Opus—and more powerful than previous models and rival systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4.

“Today, we’re launching Claude 3.5 Sonnet—our first release in the forthcoming Claude 3.5 model family. Claude 3.5 Sonnet raises the industry bar for intelligence, outperforming competitor models and Claude 3 Opus on a wide range of evaluations, with the speed and cost of our mid-tier model, Claude 3 Sonnet,” Anthropic said in a news release.

Anthropic also added that Claude 3.5 Sonnet is now freely available on Claude.ai and the Claude iOS app. Additionally, subscribers to the Claude Pro and Team plans can access Sonnet with substantially higher rate limits. The model is also available through the Anthropic API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. Pricing is set at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, featuring a 200K token context window.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet compared to previous AI models

When compared to Claude 3 Opus, which CEO Dario Amodei previously dubbed the “Rolls-Royce of models,” the new Claude 3.5 Sonnet not only outperforms on benchmark tests but also runs twice as fast and is offered to developers at a fifth of the cost. Amodei highlighted the unique advantage in the AI field, noting, “Models are a bit more fungible than cars. I don’t have to buy them and hold onto them for 20 years.”

Like Anthropic, other industry leaders such as OpenAI and Google are also pushing AI advancements at an unprecedented pace. For consumers, Anthropic has made Claude 3.5 Sonnet accessible for free on their platform and via an iOS app. They’ve also introduced a feature called “Artifacts,” which organizes content generated by Claude—be it a novel outline or a simple computer game—into a window display alongside the user’s chat with the AI.

Amodei explained that the Artifacts feature, combined with a new group subscription plan, is a step towards collaborative work and producing finished products with AI. “We want to be able to work collaboratively and use our model to produce finished products,” he said, according to a report from Reuters.

Anthropic has more in store for the year, including the upcoming release of Claude 3.5 Opus. Amodei emphasized the company’s commitment to rapid development, “We want to have as fast a release cycle as we can, again, subject to our safety values.”

The swift progression in AI development underscores the competitive landscape among companies striving to create the most advanced large language models (LLMs). Claude 3.5 Sonnet excels in code generation, complex reasoning, and writing with a natural tone, setting a new standard in the field.

Founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei, former VP of research at OpenAI, alongside Jack Clark, Sam McCandlish, and Tom Brown, Anthropic aims to harness the potential of generative artificial intelligence for significant global impact. Sensing the transformative power of large-scale AI systems, Dario, along with his sister Daniela, embarked on a mission to create AI systems that are not only scalable but also interpretable and resilient. Before co-founding Anthropic, Daniela Amodei served as OpenAI’s vice president of safety and policy.