Microsoft To Use Some AI From Anthropic In Shift From OpenAI

Microsoft is diversifying its AI portfolio by integrating some of Anthropic's AI features into Office 365 apps. 'The move will blend Anthropic and OpenAI technology in the apps, after years in which Microsoft primarily used OpenAI for the new features in Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint,' reports Reuters. From the report: Developers making Office AI features found Anthropic's latest models performed better than OpenAI in automating tasks such as financial functions in Excel or generating Powerpoint presentations based on instructions, the report said, citing one of the two people involved in the effort. Microsoft will pay its cloud rival Amazon Web Services to access the Anthropic models, according to the report. AWS is one of Anthropic's largest shareholders.

OpenAI's launch of GPT-5 is a step up in quality but Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 performs better in creating Powerpoint presentations that are more aesthetically pleasing, the report said. Microsoft plans to announce the move in the coming weeks, while the price of AI tools in Office will stay the same, the report said. 'As we've said, OpenAI will continue to be our partner on frontier models and we remain committed to our long-term partnership,' a Microsoft spokesperson said.

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