Claude became the most popular free app in the US App Store

Anthropic’s AI assistant app, Claude, took the top spot in the free apps category of the U.S. Apple App Store on Saturday. The surge in Claude’s popularity coincided with widespread media discussion about Anthropic’s decision to prohibit the use of its AI models for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons systems. Against this backdrop, ChatGPT dropped to second place in the App Store, while Google Gemini fell to fourth place.

According to analytics firm Sensor Tower, Claude was ranked only 131st in the U.S. App Store as of January 30, but consistently remained in the top 20 throughout February, ultimately reaching the number one position by the end of the month. Meanwhile, ChatGPT maintained its leadership for most of February.

An Anthropic representative stated that the number of free users of the service grew by more than 60% since January, and daily registrations tripled compared to November, setting a new daily record throughout the current week. The number of paying subscribers, according to the representative, more than doubled since the beginning of the year.

Over the past year, Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, has significantly strengthened its position as a provider of AI models for programming and enterprise use. In response, OpenAI, whose ChatGPT boasts over 900 million weekly users, has intensified partnerships with consulting firms, including Accenture and Capgemini.

Source: cnbc.com