Anthropic teamed up with California to get more state workers to use its artificial intelligence assistant Claude as part of an effort to leverage technology to make the government more efficient.<\/p>\n
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced the partnership on Monday, said state agencies will be able to access Claude at a 50% discount. Free training and other assistance will also be available to the workers. California\u2019s local governments will also get the same discount under the agreement. <\/p>\n
Government workers can use Claude to draft and summarize documents, analyze information and do other tasks.<\/p>\n
Anthropic, an AI company based in San Francisco, has a version of its AI assistant for government clients that provides more security than what it provides other consumers.<\/p>\n
The new partnership shows how AI is playing a bigger role at work as tech companies market their tools as ways to complete tasks more quickly. Last year, San Francisco made Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which is powered by OpenAI\u2019s model, available to nearly 30,000 city employees. <\/p>\n
Still, the rise of automation at work has heightened concerns that people will lose their jobs. There are also worries that there are not yet adequate guardrails in place to mitigate data privacy and security risks. <\/p>\n
Anthropic and the governor said that they\u2019re focused on the responsible use of AI.<\/p>\n
\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 Newsom said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The remarks didn\u2019t appear to comfort union leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWow. Look local government, the Gov is giving you a 50% off coupon to give up your residents\u2019 private data, outsource your jobs to big tech. Isn\u2019t that cool? Because California basically invented AI slop!\u201d said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, in a post<\/a> on X. <\/p>\n Anthropic has faced political hurdles as it pushes to get more companies and government agencies to use its products. <\/p>\n