Leading A.I. developers are locked in a high-stakes race not just to build cutting-edge models, but also to secure scarce chips and strengthen ties with Washington. Earlier this month, OpenAI made headlines by offering ChatGPT to the U.S. executive branch for a nominal $1 a year. Its rival Anthropic, not to be outdone, is now also offering its technology essentially for free to all three federal branches, the company announced today (Aug. 12).
“America’s A.I. leadership requires that our government institutions have access to the most capable, secure A.I. tools available,” said Anthropic co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei in a statement. “By offering expanded Claude access across all three branches of government, we’re helping the federal workforce leverage frontier A.I. capabilities to maintain our competitive advantage and better serve the American people.”
Under the plan, the executive, legislative and judicial branches will be able to use Anthropic’s Claude chatbot for $1 a year. The package includes both Claude for Enterprise and Claude for Government, the latter certified for FedRAMP High workloads that handle sensitive but unclassified information.
Anthropic’s technology is already in use by government agencies. The District of Columbia Department of Health has previously used Claude to deliver multilingual health services, while more than 10,000 researchers and scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory rely on Claude to enhance their work.
OpenAI’s earlier $1 deal covers ChatGPT Enterprise for the executive branch, along with 60 days of unlimited access to advanced features and training sessions to help federal workers integrate the tool into their workflow.
Both companies’ announcements come shortly after the General Services Administration added Anthropic, OpenAI and Google to its list of approved A.I. vendors to streamline federal contracting for their services. Google has yet to unveil a government package.
All three companies, alongside Elon Musk’s xAI, were recently awarded contracts of up to $200 million each by the Department of Defense’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office. The agreements task them with applying A.I. to national security challenges.
Silicon Valley’s top A.I. companies have been ramping up government-focused offerings in recent months. In June, Anthropic rolled out Claude Gov, a suite of models tailored for U.S. national security applications. xAI followed in July with its own A.I. products for government clients. OpenAI launched its “OpenAI for Government” program in June and plans to open its first Washington, D.C. office next year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
