In a significant move, AI developer Anthropic has secured a hefty $100 million injection of funding from South Korea’s telecommunications behemoth, SK Telecom, signaling a substantial boost to the industry. The announcement, made on August 13, revealed that Anthropic is set to benefit not only from the financial infusion but also from a collaborative effort between the two entities. This partnership is focused on crafting a multilingual large language model (LLM) to be integrated into the Telco AI Platform.
The forthcoming LLM is poised to break linguistic barriers, with support for languages including Korean, English, German, Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish. Its overarching mission is to pave the way for tailor-made AI services that cater to the global telecom service providers’ diverse needs.
Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, underlined SK Telecom’s bold aspirations to harness AI’s transformative potential within the telecommunications sector. He emphasized that specialized LLMs hold immense promise in ensuring the safe and dependable deployment of AI technology. Beyond this linguistic innovation, both companies have their sights set on refining Anthropic’s latest creation, Claude 2, which made its debut on July 11.
This strategic alliance emerges within the context of South Korea’s burgeoning presence in the AI landscape, particularly in the realm of chip development.Anthropic, founded by former members of the esteemed AI development company OpenAI and backed by tech giants like Microsoft, continues to chart an impressive trajectory.
In May, the company successfully concluded a Series C funding round, amassing a substantial $450 million from prominent investors such as Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, and Zoom Ventures. Google’s support initially materialized through Google Cloud in February 2023.
Notably, Anthropic’s circle of investors extends to the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had entrusted the company with an investment valued at around $500 million before its financial downturn. The significance of Anthropic’s work has also been acknowledged on a broader scale. The company finds itself actively engaged in the Biden administration’s recently unveiled AI cybersecurity challenge, aimed at fortifying the United States’ cybersecurity infrastructure.
Furthermore, Anthropic plays a pivotal role as a member of the Frontier Model Forum, alongside industry giants like Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft. This consortium is dedicated to shaping the landscape of AI development through thoughtful regulation and collaboration.
