Claude AI chatbot will be released across Europe

The Google-backed AI start-up Anthropic said it is releasing the latest version of its Claude AI chatbot across Europe starting on Tuesday.

Anthropic, which is also backed by Amazon.com, is already available to users in multiple countries, but this is the first time users across the European Union will have a chance to assess Claude both through the web and on a personal iPhone device.

Claude will also be launched in several other non-EU nations on Tuesday, such as Switzerland and Iceland.

"Millions of people worldwide are already using Claude to do things like accelerate scientific processes, enhance customer service, or refine their writing. I look forward to seeing what people and businesses across Europe create with Claude," said Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei.

The reveal comes just hours after its tech rival, the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and its CEO Sam Altman, introduced its “GPT-4o” to the world – its most advanced and intuitive chatbot model to date, with human-like conversational capabilities.

Back in March, the next generation Claude 3 model family was touted to outperform OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Gemini 1.0 Ultra from Google on various benchmark exams.

Anthropic’s CEO called the Claude 3 AI family, "the Rolls-Royce of models, at least at this point in time.”

Besides a Claude iOS app, available for all Claude users to download for free, the rollout will include the "Claude Team" plan made for businesses, which will cost about €28 per user per month.

Claude 3 is Anthropic's first "multimodal" AI suite, which similar to rival GPT-4, can respond to text queries and to images, such as analyzing a photo or chart.

The San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded by the brother and sister duo Dario and Daniela Amodei in 2021. The siblings were both former executives at OpanAI before starting the rival artificial intelligence technology startup.

Anthropic had said its Claude 3 models would eventually be available to users through Amazon and Google cloud platforms, and offered to paid users in an expected 159 countries.