- Anthropic made Claude's memory feature available to free users starting Monday
- Free users can now recall context across conversations like ChatGPT's free plan
- New subscribers can import chat histories from other AI bots via copy-paste
Anthropic PBC's artificial intelligence chatbot Claude will be able to recall context across conversations for free users, as the company seeks to hang on to new consumers who have created "unprecedented demand" the past few days.
The memory feature, which had been available to paid subscribers, was offered to Claude users beginning Monday, Anthropic said. The tool is one that rival OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, already provides to those on its free plan. Anthropic is also making it easier for new subscribers to import to Claude prior histories from other AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT, with a simple copy-and-paste technique.
Anthropic has seen a sharp increase in attention for its consumer products since it clashed with the US Defense Department over the potential use of its technology for mass surveillance and the development of autonomous weaponry. On Friday, President Donald Trump ordered US government agencies to remove Claude from their systems, and the Pentagon declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk, threatening its business.
Claude's free active users have grown more than 60% and daily signups have quadrupled since January, Anthropic said.
Meanwhile, rival OpenAI announced it will deploy its own AI models within the Defense Department's classified network, prompting some users to call for a boycott of ChatGPT.
On Monday, Claude experienced an hourslong service disruption amid what it called "unprecedented demand" over the last week. The issue was resolved by midmorning New York time.
