Google Cloud’s announcement foreshadows a decision many engineers will soon need to make.
Anthropic, a startup that produces AI tools for safety and research purposes, has chosen Google Cloud as the computational powerhouse behind its AI systems. The startup has its own language model assistant named Cloud, which the company is working to deploy with a set number of partners.
As explained in a press release, this news will translate into Google Cloud building large-scale tensor processing unit (TPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters that will be used in the deployment and training of Anthropic AI systems.
“We’re thrilled to be able to partner with Google Cloud on training and deploying useful AI systems,” said Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. “We’ve been impressed with Google Cloud’s open and flexible infrastructure. We are excited to partner with Google to scale-up our systems in the coming months.”
The deciding factor for Anthropic was the deep knowledge of machine learning at Google—as well as a shared belief in safe and beneficial AI.
“At Google, we believe it is imperative to pursue AI boldly and responsibly,” said James Manyika, SVP of Technology and Society at Google. “We are committed to developing and delivering useful and beneficial applications, applying responsible principles grounded in human values and safety and evolving our approaches as we learn from research, experience, users and the wider community. Our partnership with Anthropic is aligned with that philosophy.”
Why Engineers Should Care
Unless you’re sleeping under a rock, you’ve likely noticed that AI has become an important part of the engineering industry. It’s caught the eye of big name engineering solution providers such as Ansys, Dassault Systèmes, Altair, Siemens and many more. Soon enough, many of the people that use these AI enhanced/enhancing products are bound to see some advantage that the technology could bring to their niche area of expertise.
This means that the number of engineering companies—startups and established leaders alike—pivoting to AI technology is bound to grow. Engineering companies will soon need to make a similar decision to the one made by Anthropic, or risk falling behind in AI development; as they will need a Cloud resource to house that development. The Anthropic announcement from Google Cloud shows that when the time comes, their offerings will be one viable option, though not the only one (see Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services).
“AI has evolved from academic research to become one of the biggest drivers of technological change, creating new opportunities for growth and improved services across all industries,” said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. “Google Cloud is providing open infrastructure for the next generation of AI startups, and our partnership with Anthropic is a great example of how we’re helping users and businesses tap into the power of reliable and responsible AI.”
