Generative AI startup Anthropic updated its terms and conditions for the new year to indemnify paying customers against copyright lawsuits over their use of Anthropic’s Claude generative AI chatbot and other enterprise AI tools. The move provides legal cover similar to that already offered by Google, OpenAI, and many synthetic media providers like Shutterstock and Adobe. It also suggests stability, which may be a crucial component in attracting investors for a $750 million funding round rumored to be on the horizon.

Anthropic Protection

Anthropic’s updated terms commit to defending commercial clients from accusations in court that their use of Anthropic’s services violates intellectual property rights. This includes any synthetic media of other generative AI outputs produced on the platform. Demand for services like chatbots and content generation has surged, but lawful use remains disputed.

“Our Commercial Terms of Service (previously our services agreement) will enable our customers to retain ownership rights over any outputs they generate through their use of our services and protect them from copyright infringement claims,” Anthropic explained in its announcement. “Under the updated terms, we will defend our customers from any copyright infringement claim made against them for their authorized use of our services or their outputs, and we will pay for any approved settlements or judgments that result.”

The indemnification excludes misconduct violations, however, and has other carveouts like modifications to Anthropic’s systems. The protection is not extended to free users, just those paying for the API. The decision nonetheless lays out Anthropic’s long-term commitment as the debate continues. With the hundreds of millions of dollars in funding potentially coming in soon, the company might have felt it important to explain its position before the likely massive expansion plans fueled by the new cash begin next year. That’s after the startup raised $100 million in August and $450 million in May. The API focus also fits with the additional updates from Anthropic announced at the same time. That includes widening access to the API and the introduction of a new feature called Messages API that will aid users in spotting errors earlier in the programming process.

The updated terms follow a major technical upgrade to Anthropic’s generative AI chatbot to Claude 2.1. The new iteration ups the AI’s comprehension and cuts down on hallucinations while doubling the 100,000 token context window of Claude 2.0 to 200,000 tokens. It also comes with a tool use feature to handle workflows via external APIs and databases, and a new system prompts setup, which enables users to give Claude custom instructions, putting its responses into context or making Claude take up a role in its answers.

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