Cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, is reportedly exploring the possibility of offloading its stake in Anthropic, an OpenAI rival, according to a report by Semafor. Currently, the exchange holds over $500 million worth of shares in Anthropic. The bank handling the potential sale, Perella Weinberg, is said to be discussing the idea with investors, although both FTX and Weinberg have declined to comment on the matter.
Generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that can produce content based on prompts after being trained on substantial amounts of data, is at the center of this story. Companies like Microsoft and Google are investing billions to capitalize on this rapidly growing technology. In fact, Microsoft has invested a whopping $13 billion in OpenAI to achieve its goals, subsequently integrating ChatGPT into the Bing web browser.
While generative AI has gained considerable traction, challenges remain, such as the issue of “hallucinations.” These are instances where the AI generates false information as fact in its responses. Nevertheless, the industry is making significant progress to overcome these setbacks.
Anthropic, founded by ex-OpenAI employees in 2021, recently launched Claude AI in March following a $400 million investment from Google. With additional funding of $450 million in Series C, led by Spark Capital, Anthropic has made notable advancements in Claude AI. The chatbot can now process over 100,000 tokens or 75,000 words, a feat that would take the average person more than five hours to read and digest. In contrast, Claude can achieve this in under a minute.
Despite the advances and investments in AI, FTX’s decision to potentially offload its shares in Anthropic comes amid financial troubles for the exchange. Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, FTX’s founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was charged with money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire in December.
However, a federal judge permitted the sale of some FTX assets to repay creditors in January, leaving the question of whether FTX would sell its entire position in Anthropic up for discussion, according to Semafor’s report. Most recently, FTX sold the derivates trading platform, LedgerX, to private equity firm M7 Holdings after receiving court approval in May.
While there are clear benefits of generative AI technology, its growth faces pushback from concerns over the creation of misinformation. As the industry seeks to continue addressing and overcoming these hurdles, the future of AI investments, especially for companies like FTX, remains uncertain.
Source: Decrypt
