{"id":379648,"date":"2026-06-29T19:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379648\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T19:40:07","slug":"california-agencies-get-access-to-anthropics-ai-tools-at-half-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/379648\/","title":{"rendered":"California agencies get access to Anthropic’s AI tools at half price"},"content":{"rendered":"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that the state has negotiated a contract with Anthropic to provide agencies access to Claude, the company\u2019s AI assistant, with the aim of improving government operations and public services.<\/p>\n

Under the agreement, state agencies can use Anthropic\u2019s tools at a 50% discounted rate, to streamline administrative work, analyze large volumes of information, draft documents and improve constituent services. The agreement includes the same offer for California\u2019s local governments.<\/p>\n

Newsom said in a press release that generative AI deployments should augment, not replace, state employees, and that agencies remain responsible for ensuring accuracy, transparency and privacy protections. According to the announcement<\/a>, deployments will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis under California\u2019s AI policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis partnership is about using technology the California way: responsibly, transparently, and in service of people,\u201d Newsom said in the release. \u201cAI should not replace the human work of government; it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively, and deliver better results for Californians.\u201d<\/p>\n

California has used Claude before, including using the tool to launch\u00a0Engaged California<\/a>, a platform that helps provide Californians with a stronger voice in AI policymaking. The state also used Anthropic\u2019s AI assistant to develop Poppy<\/a>, a AI-powered digital assistant for public employees that the state began pilot testing last September.<\/p>\n

Anthropic has steadily expanded its presence across government in recent years. The company this month launched a $15 million cyber defense program<\/a> for state, local, tribal and territorial governments that provides Claude credits and cybersecurity resources to help public agencies identify vulnerabilities. California and Texas were the first two states to join the program. The company in May partnered with Code for America<\/a> to develop AI-powered tools for SNAP caseworkers navigating increasingly complex benefits policies. The SNAP Policy Navigator uses Claude to help eligibility workers interpret guidance and reduce administrative burden.<\/p>\n

Maryland<\/a> announced a similar deal with Anthropic last year, allowing state employees to use Claude to help reduce child poverty, streamline housing access and improve public service delivery.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s initiative builds on the state\u2019s AI strategy, which has included other projects, like the Career Passport<\/a> digital workforce tool launched this month.<\/p>\n

Rather than pursuing isolated AI pilots, California has increasingly sought enterprise agreements that allow agencies to share best practices while establishing governance standards. Last week, the state launched a website<\/a> designed to track AI-related job-loss trends.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Sophia<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWritten by Sophia Fox-Sowell
\n\t\t\tSophia Fox-Sowell reports on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and government regulation for StateScoop. She was previously a multimedia producer for CNET, where her coverage focused on private sector innovation in food production, climate change and space through podcasts and video content. She earned her bachelor\u2019s in anthropology at Wagner College and master\u2019s in media innovation from Northeastern University.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that the state has negotiated a contract with Anthropic to provide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104589,19534,12755,7,9,8,35346,457],"class_list":["post-379648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ai-assistant","tag-anthropic","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-claude","tag-gavin-newsom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}