Anthropic Curbs Rollout of AI Skeleton Key While Meta Regains Model Momentum
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One is positioning itself as the world's new front door to AI; the other is a lock-pick so effective its creators are hiding it.
Meta reasserted itself in the artificial intelligence race Wednesday with the launch of its first new model since CEO Mark Zuckerberg poured billions into a major overhaul to catch rivals Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. The release came a day after Anthropic said it would severely limit the rollout of an advanced new model designed to excel at identifying software vulnerabilities because it would be a gift to the world's hackers.
Meta's new Muse Spark, developed by a lavishly compensated unit Zuckerberg assembled under wunderkind Scale AI cofounder Alexandr Wang, now powers Meta's AI app and website in the US, with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Meta smart glasses to follow in the coming weeks. Similar to Google's Gemini model, it was "purpose-built for Meta's products," enabling the company to leverage its mass social media user base to expedite adoption. Meta is deliberately restraining expectations, highlighting "competitive performance" against ChatGPT, Gemini and xAI's Grok. Meanwhile, it plans to put $115 billion to $135 billion toward capital investments including AI, nearly double last year's tally, signaling its determination to become a leader in the space. Meta soared 6.5% on Wednesday, beating the S&P 500's 2.5% bounce on positive news about the Iran war.
The splashy launch contrasted with Anthropic's unusual announcement Tuesday that its advanced model, Claude Mythos Preview, would be distributed only to a few dozen companies, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia and JPMorganChase, as part of its cybersecurity-oriented Project Glasswing. That's undoubtedly for the best:
Partner Perks: When reports first circulated late last month about Mythos, some cybersecurity came under pressure over fears Anthropic would become a competitor. But JPMorgan analysts said Wednesday that CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, both part of Project Glasswing, could benefit because they're working closely with Anthropic on the new model. The bank affirmed its overweight ratings on both, with 12-month price targets of $475 for CrowdStrike and $200 for Palo Alto Networks, implying double-digit upsides for each.