\n The AI company Anthropic was likely not in the public lexicon just a month ago. But it is now.\n <\/p>\n
\n The AI company has long been known within tech circles for its popular Claude AI assistant and coding tools. But a whirlwind sequence of events in February thrust the company into the public eye more than ever. Case in point: Anthropic\u2019s Claude app dethroned OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT to claim the top spot in Apple\u2019s iPhone App Store over the weekend.\n <\/p>\n
\n The increased visibility comes as the company has been locked in a high-stakes public feud with the Pentagon over its safety guardrails. But even in the weeks before, updates to its Claude tool stoked concerns<\/a> about AI\u2019s impact on the software industry, sending shockwaves through Wall Street. And in early February, Anthropic took its most pointed and public jab at its chief rival, OpenAI, during the Super Bowl,<\/a> one of the most-watched events on television.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s shaping up to be a formative time for the company, but its Claude assistant still has a long way to go to catch up to ChatGPT in public popularity.\n <\/p>\n \n In early February, Claude was around number 42 on the Apple App Store\u2019s list of the most popular free iPhone apps. It surged to number one by Saturday, the day after the Pentagon deemed Anthropic a \u201csupply chain risk\u201d and President Donald Trump ordered<\/a> the federal government to stop using the company\u2019s products. ChatGPT is currently the top free app in the Google Play app store for Android devices, although Claude isn\u2019t far behind in fourth place.\n <\/p>\n \n Some showed support for Claude in the real world as well: Encouraging messages like \u201cThank you\u201d covered the sidewalks outside of Anthropic\u2019s San Francisco offices in recent days, according to images employees posted on social media.\n <\/p>\n \n Other people sent OpenAI, which announced a deal<\/a> with the Pentagon late Friday, a much different message. Phrases such as \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and \u201cplease stand up for civil liberties\u201d\u202fwere scribbled on the sidewalk outside its offices, according to San Francisco news site<\/a> Mission Local.\n <\/p>\n \n Google searches for \u201cAnthropic\u201d are the highest they have been since the company\u2019s founding, according to Google search trends. <\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n As its battle with the Pentagon ramped up last week, the company hit \u201can all time record for Claude sign-ups,\u201d an Anthropic spokesperson told CNN on Monday.\n <\/p>\n \n Anthropic is leaning into that attention boost with a new feature unveiled Friday that simplifies importing history from other AI chatbots into Claude, the company said. It also added the ability for Claude to remember context across conversations to its free tier on Monday, rather than restricting it to paid users.\n <\/p>\n \n Even pop star Katy Perry<\/a> seems to be a Claude convert.\n <\/p>\n \n The demand has been so high that Claude briefly went down on Monday morning for many users, which Anthropic attributed to \u201cunprecedented demand for Claude over the last week.\u201d The system was back online within a few hours.\n <\/p>\n \n Anthropic\u2019s Claude has been a Silicon Valley darling for some time and a particular favorite among software engineers who rely on its coding tools. Yet it\u2019s struggled to achieve the mainstream appeal of rival ChatGPT, which recently surpassed<\/a> 900 million weekly users. And Claude still has a long way to go by some estimates.\n <\/p>\n