{"id":303492,"date":"2026-02-26T17:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303492\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T17:10:13","slug":"battle-of-the-ai-brands-whats-behind-the-bad-blood-between-openai-and-anthropic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/303492\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the AI brands: What’s behind the bad blood between OpenAI and Anthropic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As more than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl, the battle for the future of artificial intelligence spilled out into a massive public arena.<\/p>\n

In a series of viral commercials, AI upstart Anthropic broadcast to football fans that they should avoid AI with ads. The commercial was obviously targeting OpenAI, which plans to add ads to ChatGPT. Anthropic\u2019s bot, Claude, will never have ads, it says. <\/p>\n

In one of the Super Bowl slots, a short man asks a representation of an AI assistant how to get six-pack abs. The super supportive AI trainer says he has a workout plan for the man before abruptly pivoting to a pitch for height-increasing insoles. <\/p>\n

Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive of OpenAI, fired back on social media, calling the ads \u201cclearly dishonest.\u201d <\/p>\n

The public spat between the dueling San Francisco companies showcased an intense rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic as they go head-to-head in a battle that could shape the technology\u2019s future. While both companies are still very young, their grappling could emerge as the next big clash between brands like IBM vs. Apple, Coke vs. Pepsi or McDonald\u2019s vs. Burger King. <\/p>\n

While there are other AI behemoths \u2014 including Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and others \u2014 OpenAI\u2019s tension with Anthropic is telling because it stems from their shared origins and different philosophies.<\/p>\n

OpenAI has historically favored quick, free, public releases of its latest AI models, such as ChatGPT. It believes that feedback from many users helps improve its models and make them safer.<\/p>\n

Anthropic, co-founded by Dario Amodei, who left OpenAI in part because of its direction, says it is taking a more cautious approach. It says it is focusing on how to build AI products slowly and safely. It tries to control who gets the latest tech before unleashing it on the masses.<\/p>\n

That difference in stances \u2014 OpenAI\u2019s need for speed versus Anthropic\u2019s stress on safety \u2014 has helped trigger the tension. Experts say OpenAI seems more likely to push boundaries with broad public access, while Anthropic initially prefers incremental steps through partnerships. Each wants to steer the conversation on what responsible AI will mean. <\/p>\n

Of course, it is also a fight for market share in a fast-growing, multibillion-dollar industry. The two companies are competing for corporate and retail customers. They both want to be thought leaders and revenue leaders in AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is the most consequential technology that we have ever experienced in the history of humanity,\u201d said Tim Law, research director for AI & automation at IDC, a global market intelligence firm. \u201cThey are competing at so many different layers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tension between Altman and Amodei seemed to surface last week, when they were the only ones who didn\u2019t clasp hands onstage during a group pose at an AI event in India.<\/p>\n

Amodei and Altman also have different takes on AI\u2019s potential to displace workers. Amodei said in 2025 that AI<\/a> could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Altman has acknowledged technology\u2019s role in disrupting jobs but says it can also create new, more fulfilling roles. <\/p>\n

Amodei previously worked at OpenAI as its vice president of research. He and other OpenAI employees, including his sister Daniela, left the company to create Anthropic in 2021 because of disagreements over OpenAI\u2019s direction. <\/p>\n

In a 2024 interview, Amodei said he had a different vision for how AI safety should be handled, and \u201cit\u2019s incredibly unproductive to try and argue with someone else\u2019s vision,\u201d so he left. <\/p>\n

Anthropic and OpenAI both offer chatbots to consumers. Anthropic, though, has pledged that Claude will remain ad-free while OpenAI is currently testing ads in ChatGPT. <\/p>\n

Valued at roughly $380 billion, Anthropic is legally required to balance profit-making with advancing the company\u2019s public benefit of \u201cresponsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

It makes money from enterprise contracts with businesses, government agencies, and other organizations, as well as from paid subscriptions. Its chatbot, Claude, has fewer users than ChatGPT, but developers and businesses, including Amazon, Microsoft, and other companies, often prefer Anthropic\u2019s tools. Claude can generate code, translate languages, write and perform other tasks, but the chatbot can\u2019t produce images. <\/p>\n

It says it has revenue equivalent to about $14 billion a year. PitchBook estimates it has around 2,000 employees. <\/p>\n

Anthropic is pushing for AI safety through political donations. This month, the company said it\u2019s contributing $20 million to a group called Public First Action to \u201csupport public education about AI, promote safeguards, and ensure America leads the AI race.\u201d The organization is advocating for greater regulation of AI\u2019s high risks, such as its potential use in biological weapons and cyberattacks.<\/p>\n

Anthropic faces pressure to scale back its safeguards. The Pentagon reportedly threatened to end its $200-million contract with Anthropic if the company doesn\u2019t loosen restrictions on its AI model so it can be used for more military purposes.<\/p>\n

The company this week dropped a vow not to release AI models if Anthropic can\u2019t guarantee it could properly mitigate risks amid more competition. It\u2019s unclear if the change is related to the Pentagon contract.<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s valuation exceeds $800 billion. It has roughly 4,000 employees, according to PitchBook. The company\u2019s chatbot can also code, write, and generate images. More than 800 million people use ChatGPT weekly for writing, brainstorming, coding and other tasks.<\/p>\n

Initially founded as a nonprofit in 2015, the company restructured to raise more capital. While it\u2019s testing ads in ChatGPT, OpenAI also makes money in other ways, including fees and subscription plans.<\/p>\n

While the companies overlap in customers, OpenAI has a much broader user base that also uses ChatGPT for free, making advertising an attractive revenue source.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is that advertising is the core business model of the internet as a whole,\u201d said Andy Wu, an associate professor at Harvard Business School. \u201cGiven the consumer focus of OpenAI, I would take the view that it\u2019s inevitable that OpenAI has to do advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n

OpenAI began testing ads in ChatGPT and says conversations will remain private from advertisers.<\/p>\n

OpenAI\u2019s Altman said Anthropic\u2019s Super Bowl ads illustrate how it is elitist. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnthropic serves an expensive product to rich people,\u201d Altman posted on X. \u201cWe are glad they do that, and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can\u2019t pay for subscriptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the jabs thrown by the two companies, industry insiders say it is healthy that these debates are spilling out into the public, though it may add to the confusion about the powerful technology and the top companies behind it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to have significant consequences for society,\u201d IDC\u2019s Law said. \u201cIt could be a very disruptive period for enterprises as well as consumers as well as governments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As more than 100 million people watched the Super Bowl, the battle for the future of artificial intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1740,365,166279,6166,363,364,5837,9473,4036,7705,1656,56618,111,139,69,620,384,6302,1657,145,37454],"class_list":{"0":"post-303492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ad","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-ai-brand","11":"tag-anthropic","12":"tag-artificial-intelligence","13":"tag-artificialintelligence","14":"tag-battle","15":"tag-chatbot","16":"tag-chatgpt","17":"tag-claude","18":"tag-company","19":"tag-dario-amodei","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-openai","24":"tag-people","25":"tag-safety","26":"tag-sam-altman","27":"tag-technology","28":"tag-tension"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}