Anthropic and Governor Newsom reach an agreement allowing the California government to use Cloud at half the price

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) Anthropic Make a deal Which allows California government agencies to use Claude at a discounted price. This agreement comes at a time when companies are witnessing… Struggling To manage the high costs of enterprise subscriptions to AI tools.

Under the agreement, all state agencies and local governments will have access to Claude, Anthropic’s chatbot, as well as training and support from Anthropic. A news release from the governor’s office said Claude will assist state employees in drafting documents and analyzing information.

“AI should not replace the human work of government; it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively, and deliver better outcomes for Californians,” Governor Newsom said in a statement. statement.

This deal comes after Newsom’s rally Executive order Which aims to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence to “make government more efficient” while also maintaining stronger safety standards.

“While others in Washington design policies and create contracts in the shadow of abuse, we are focused on doing it the right way,” Newsom added. He said at that time.

While Anthropic works to forge a closer relationship with California, the federal government has made an enemy out of competitor OpenAI. Earlier this year, Anthropic and the US Department of Defense I clashed Under contract the government agency is given permission to use Cloud for any lawful use. Anthropic sought to put in place explicit protections that prevent the government from using its technology to surveil Americans or deploy autonomous weapons without human oversight. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused, and the agency signed a deal with OpenAI instead. The government went so far as to declare anthropology “Supply chain risks“, which prevents the company from working with any other contractors in the Pentagon.

While the state’s path clearly deviates from the actions of the federal government, California CTO and CTO Chris Giffen Politico said Identifying supply chain risks “was not raised” during the negotiation of this humanitarian contract.