Anthropic Says Looking to Power European Tech with Hiring Push
American AI giant Anthropic aims to boost the European tech ecosystem as it expands on the continent, product chief Mike Krieger told AFP Thursday at the Vivatech trade fair in Paris.
The OpenAI competitor wants to be "the engine behind some of the largest startups of tomorrow... (and) many of them can and should come from Europe", Krieger said.
Tech industry and political leaders have often lamented Europe's failure to capitalize on its research and education strength to build heavyweight local companies -- with many young founders instead leaving to set up shop across the Atlantic.
Krieger's praise for the region's "really strong talent pipeline" chimed with an air of continental tech optimism at Vivatech.
French AI startup Mistral on Wednesday announced a multibillion-dollar tie-up to bring high-powered computing resources from chip behemoth Nvidia to the region.
The semiconductor firm will "increase the amount of AI computing capacity in Europe by a factor of 10" within two years, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang told an audience at the southern Paris convention center.
Among 100 planned continental hires, Anthropic is building up its technical and research strength in Europe, where it has offices in Dublin and non-EU capital London, Krieger said.
Beyond the startups he hopes to boost, many long-standing European companies "have a really strong appetite for transforming themselves with AI", he added, citing luxury giant LVMH, which had a large footprint at Vivatech.
'Safe by design'
Mistral -- founded only in 2023 and far smaller than American industry leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic -- is nevertheless "definitely in the conversation" in the industry, Krieger said.
The French firm recently followed in the footsteps of the US companies by releasing a so-called "reasoning" model able to take on more complex tasks.
"I talk to customers all the time that are maybe using (Anthropic's AI) Claude for some of the long-horizon agentic tasks, but then they've also fine-tuned Mistral for one of their data processing tasks, and I think they can co-exist in that way," Krieger said.
So-called "agentic" AI models -- including the most recent versions of Claude -- work as autonomous or semi-autonomous agents that are able to do work over longer horizons with less human supervision, including by interacting with tools like web browsers and email.
Capabilities displayed by the latest releases have raised fears among some researchers, such as University of Montreal professor and "AI godfather" Yoshua Bengio, that independently acting AI could soon pose a risk to humanity.
Bengio last week launched a non-profit, LawZero, to develop "safe-by-design" AI -- originally a key founding promise of OpenAI and Anthropic.
'Very specific genius'
"A huge part of why I joined Anthropic was because of how seriously they were taking that question" of AI safety, said Krieger, a Brazilian software engineer who co-founded Instagram, which he left in 2018.
Anthropic is still working on measures designed to restrict their AI models' potential to do harm, he added.
But it has yet to release details of its "level 4" AI safety protections foreseen for still more powerful models, after activating ASL (AI Safety Level) 3 to corral the capabilities of May's Claude Opus 4 release.
Developing ASL 4 is "an active part of the work of the company", Krieger said, without giving a potential release date.
With Claude 4 Opus, "we've deployed the mitigations kind of proactively... safe doesn't have to mean slow, but it does mean having to be thoughtful and proactive ahead of time" to make sure safety protections don't impair performance, he added.
Looking to upcoming releases from Anthropic, Krieger said the company's models were on track to match chief executive Dario Amodei's prediction that Anthropic would offer customers access to a "country of geniuses in a data center" by 2026 or 2027 -- within limits.
Anthropic's latest AI models are "genius-level at some very specific things", he said.
"In the coming year... it will continue to spike in particular aspects of things, and still need a lot of human-in-the-loop coordination," he forecast.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Arab News
EU brings Turkiye into its security fold
Turkiye has long insisted on being a part of Europe's defense programs and having a say in how Europe shapes its security. Yet, for decades, European states viewed Turkiye mostly through the lens of its EU membership bid and political disagreements. But today, geopolitical matters — especially growing security threats — are shifting that perspective. Now, both Ankara and Brussels recognize that they face similar security concerns. This growing sense of mutual insecurity was highlighted this month, when Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said that European allies must not only spend more on defense, but also do so wisely — by including Turkiye's fast-growing defense industry in their planning. Although many EU states have long been hesitant to increase their defense spending, US President Donald Trump pushed them to rethink and open their wallets. One major step was last month's creation of a €150 billion ($173 billion) EU defense fund, known as the Security Action for Europe scheme, which is aimed at strengthening its arms industry. A few years ago, the idea of integrating Turkish defense companies into Europe's security systems might have seemed unrealistic. But several factors have changed that. Turkiye's falling-out with the US over the F-35 program, increasing regional threats, Russia's aggression in Ukraine and Europe's doubts about long-term US security commitments have all helped bring Ankara and the EU closer together and make EU-Turkiye defense cooperation more appealing. The combination of these factors has created a major shift in their relationship, which is now reflected in more regular meetings between Turkish and European defense officials. Turkiye has been building strong bilateral defense ties with individual EU countries for some time Dr. Sinem Cengiz Turkiye has been building strong bilateral defense ties with individual EU countries for some time. The recent cooperation between Italy's Leonardo and Turkiye's Baykar — the company behind the well-known Bayraktar drones — is a significant example. Ankara is already joining several EU defense initiatives, such as the European Sky Shield Initiative. It is also involved in joint projects — like making ammunition with Poland, supplying military vehicles to Romania and working on naval programs with Portugal. This bilateral cooperation signals a new type of partnership between Turkiye and the EU states that goes beyond traditional parameters. Turkiye's success in building a strong defense industry — especially with its popular Bayraktar TB2 drone — has impressed many in Europe and boosted Ankara's leverage. Turkiye also has key strategic advantages. It has NATO's second-largest army and a central position near the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East — areas where Europe needs security support. Its ability to help counterbalance Russian influence adds to its importance. With these advantages, Turkiye not only wants to sell its defense products to EU states, it wants a real seat at the table, shaping Europe's defense strategy and becoming part of the continent's industrial defense base. However, this potential partnership comes with some challenges. Not all EU countries are on the same page when it comes to Turkiye's integration into Europe's defense programs. The main challengers are Greece and Cyprus. Their concerns are not related to today's security realities, but rather to long-standing issues in Turkish-Greek relations. Despite these divisions, the insecurity caused by the broader global uncertainty is pushing many EU countries to move ahead with defense partnerships with Turkiye. They are trying to persuade Greece to accept closer cooperation with Turkiye in this field, emphasizing the bigger picture: a stronger and more self-reliant European security system. Thus, the pros of integrating Turkiye into EU defense programs are related to Turkiye's geographical position, its military strength, growing defense industry and mutual security concerns in a time of global instability. On the other hand, the cons and challenges are related to the fragmented EU approach. While some member states prioritize security and pragmatism, seeing Turkiye as essential for regional stability, some have long-standing issues with the country. Moreover, some remain wary of certain Turkish foreign policy moves that clash with EU interests, such as in Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean and Syria. Genuine political will and a clear sense of mutual benefit is required to achieve strategic goals in the defense realm Dr. Sinem Cengiz Given these challenges, genuine political will and a clear sense of mutual benefit is required to achieve strategic goals in the defense realm. What is meant by mutual benefit is that, while the EU keeps talking about the importance of Turkiye's role in European security, it is not offering any commitments relating to Ankara's membership of the bloc. The EU's often ambiguous approach raises questions about its sincerity and how it perceives Turkiye. European heavyweights such as Germany — which sees Turkiye's support to Europe's security as significant — often seem to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye when it comes to the issue of Turkish membership. Turkiye's experience with the 2016 migrant deal with the EU further deepens this skepticism. At the time, the agreement had raised hopes in Ankara that Turkiye's role within the EU framework would be strengthened. However, several factors have made both sides doubtful about the other's direction. According to Ankara, inclusion in EU defense planning not only strengthens its own economy and geopolitical standing, but it also increases its bargaining power in other policy areas with the EU. From Turkiye's perspective, defense ties could serve as a steppingstone to resetting broader relations with the EU after years of political friction. There are now even larger expectations that are likely to guide the Turkiye-EU defense partnership. Thus, if a new era is to begin, lessons from the past must guide the new EU approach so that this momentum will not end up as a missed opportunity. • Dr. Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkiye's relations with the Middle East. X: @SinemCngz
Asharq Al-Awsat
19 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Liverpool Agree Club-record Deal to Sign Wirtz
Liverpool have agreed a club-record deal worth up to £116 million ($157 million) to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, it was widely reported on Friday. The Premier League champions will pay an initial £100 million, comfortably surpassing their own record outlay, but the performance-related add-ons, if achieved, would make it a potential British record, AFP reported. Liverpool's overall outlay for the 22-year-old Germany international could surpass the £115 million Chelsea agreed to pay Brighton in 2023 for Moises Caicedo, who turned down Anfield. Midfielder Caicedo cost Chelsea an initial £100 million fee, which could rise to £115 million. Striker Darwin Nunez was Liverpool's previous record signing in 2022, although they have not paid the full £85 million as he has not met all the requirements for certain add-ons to be due. Manchester City had been keen on Wirtz but pulled out, reportedly due to the spiraling costs of the whole package.
Al Arabiya
20 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Boeing chief cancels trip to Paris air show after Air India plane crash
Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg has scrapped his trip to next week's Paris air show, a major aviation industry event, to focus on the investigation of Air India's Dreamliner crash. 'As our industry prepares to start the Paris Air Show, (Boeing executive vice president) Stephanie (Pope) and I have both canceled plans to attend so we can be with our team, and focus on our customer and the investigation,' Ortberg said in a message to employees obtained by AFP on Friday.
