AI startup Anthropic launched Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which it claimed is its most powerful model to date as it looks to gain an advantage over rival OpenAI.

Google and Amazon backed Anthropic noted in a blog its Claude 3.5 Sonnet model is the first release in its forthcoming Claude 3.5 family.

It stated Claude 3.5 Sonnet is twice as fast as its previous leading model, Claude 3 Opus, while outperforming competitor models. The AI challenger took the wraps off Claude 3 in March.

According to the blog, Claude 3.5 Sonnet “shows marked improvement in grasping nuance, humour, and complex instructions, and is exceptional at writing high-quality content with a natural, relatable tone”.

It also stated it can independently write, edit, and execute code “with sophisticated reasoning and troubleshooting capabilities”.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available for free on the company’s website and in the Claude iPhone app. Claude Pro and Team plan subscribers can also access the latest model with higher rate limits.

In May, Anthropic hired former Instagram co-founder and CTO Mike Krieger as its chief product officer to help drive the adoption of its chatbot.

Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, also competes against Microsoft and Google in the highly competitive AI sector.

OpenAI unveiled its GPT-4o model in May, which it stated is much faster than its previous version.