Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI employees, has launched its latest tool, Claude Cowork, spotlighting the company as one of the most valued AI unicorns. It is now estimated to be worth trillions, according to East Week magazine, a sister publication of The Standard.
Dario Amodei, founder of Anthropic and former OpenAI executive, launched the new Claude Cowork tool for his AI product Claude. Apart from basic chat capabilities, the tool now incorporates legal, marketing, financial, data, and sales analytics functions, significantly streamlining research workflows. OpenAI subsequently launched a counterattack with new products, including an update to its AI programming assistant Codex.
After Amodei left OpenAI following disagreements with co-founder Sam Altman, he began targeting OpenAI. For instance, he heavily advertised Claude at the US Super Bowl, with one ad saying: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” poking fun at OpenAI which will introduce ads to support free access. In return, Altman publicly criticized Anthropic's marketing tactics for being “dishonest” and “doublespeak,” adding that the number of users accessing the free version of ChatGPT in Texas alone already exceeds that of Claude users across the entire United States.
Anthropic's ad at the US Super Bowl.
Analysts note that AI is rapidly evolving from simple chat tools into professional task agents, which signals a high risk of elimination for Software-as-a-Service companies. Under fears of an AI takeover, global software stocks were sent into a panic sell-off. The S&P North American Technology Software Index, which comprises over 100 software stocks, has fallen more than 30 percent from its peak in last September, entering a bear market.
The software company Salesforce has fallen over 11 percent since early February, while ServiceNow and Snowflake has dropped nearly 8 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Information providers FactSet Research Systems and Thomson Reuters each plunged almost 10 percent in a single day, with both falling nearly 30 percent over the past month.
AI agents pose a threat to many other industries. The future may see insurance customers consulting AI agents for analysis and direct purchases. Over the past month, major brokerage firms like Willis Towers Watson and Aon have faced selling pressure. Expedia dropped nearly 23 percent in February, while Booking.com fell almost 15 percent.
Mrinank Sharma, a former Anthropic researcher, posted on X that “the world is in peril.” He said that while Claude represents efficiency, automation, and margin expansion, humanity is approaching a tipping point where the pace of technological advancement has outstripped society's capacity to deploy these capabilities responsibly.
