California Partners with Anthropic to Provide AI Tools to State Agencies

The state of California and San Francisco-based AI company Anthropic have formed a partnership meant to help California state government agencies use AI responsibly, expand workforce training and better serve Californians.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the collaboration on June 29, saying in a statement that the alliance is the first of its kind, and will “help support state workers and responsibly adopt AI to make state services more effective, user-friendly and efficient.”

Under the agreement, state agencies are granted access to Anthropic’s AI productivity assistant, Claude, at a 50% discounted price, combined with free workforce training and expert GenAI technical assistance and workflow input from Anthropic developers, according to Newsom’s statement.

Local governments throughout California, including cities and counties, will receive the same discounted offer. Claude will help state workers with tasks including drafting and summarizing documents, analyzing information and supplementing daily work.

Claude was also used in the state’s development of Poppy, an AI tool meant specifically for state government use and designed to provide additional security throughout the state’s network.

In addition, agencies including the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the state’s Department of Healthcare Services are relying on Claude for internal workflows to better assist Medicaid recipients, according to Newsom’s office.

“This partnership is about using technology the California way: responsibly, transparently and in service of people,” said Newsom, in a statement. “AI should not replace the human work of government, it should help our workers move faster, solve problems more effectively and deliver better results for Californians.”