- Anthropic CEO has promised several updates to Claude, including one that gives it memory.
- This means that the AI can remember things and bring them up in future conversations.
- It remains to be seen how this will perform and is expected to arrive in the coming months.
The Claude AI chatbot will receive major upgrades in the coming months, including the ability to listen and respond with voice alone. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei explained the plans to the Wall Street Journal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, including the voice mode and an upcoming memory function.
Basically, Claude is getting a personality boost so it can talk back and remember who you are. The two-way voice mode promises to let users talk to Claude and hear it respond, creating a more natural, hands-free conversation. Whether this makes Claude a more accessible version of itself or will let it imitate a human on the phone is questionable.
Either way, Anthropic seems to be aiming for a hybrid between a traditional chatbot and voice assistants like Alexa or Siri, though presumably with all the benefits of its more advanced AI.
Claude’s upcoming memory feature will allow the chatbot to recall past interactions. For example, you can share your favorite book and Claude will remember it the next time you chat. You can even discuss your passion for knitting sweaters and Claude will pick up the thread in your next conversation. While this memory feature could lead to more personal exchanges, it also raises questions about what happens when Claude mixes these memories with the occasional hallucination.
Claude demands
Still, there is no lack of interest in what Claude can do. Amodei mentioned that Anthropic has been overwhelmed by the increase in demand for artificial intelligence over the past year. Amodei explained that the company’s computing capacity has been stretched to its limits in recent months.
Anthropic’s push for Claude’s upgrades is part of its effort to stay competitive in a market dominated by OpenAI and tech giants like Google. With OpenAI and Google integrating ChatGPT and Gemini into everything they can think of, Anthropic needs to find a way to stand out. By adding voice and memory to Claude’s repertoire, Anthropic hopes to stand out as an alternative that can lure away fans of ChatGPT and Gemini.
A voice-activated, memory-enhanced AI chatbot like Claude could also serve as a leader, or at least a competitor, among the trend of making AI chatbots seem more human. The goal seems to be to blur the line between a tool and a companion. And if you want people to use Claude to that extent, a voice and a memory will be crucial.
