Anthropic and OpenAI Release Cheaper Models in First Launches Since Slowdown Call
Anthropic and OpenAI on Tuesday released lower-cost AI models, the first launches since Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for an industry-wide slowdown on advanced AI development.
OpenAI introduced additional tiers to its GPT-6 family, GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna, and cut API prices by 50% compared with GPT-5.6 promotional pricing. Sol, a tier below Astra, is intended for more complex workloads such as coding, while Luna is geared toward high-volume tasks such as extracting information or summarizing documents, the company said.
Anthropic unveiled Claude Opus 5.5, its latest release in the new Claude 5.5 model family. The company described it as a more token-efficient version that will cost around 40% less to run than Opus 5. Dianne Penn, head of product management, research and labs at Anthropic, told CNBC that the company is continuing to innovate on making thinking and answering more efficient so it uses fewer tokens depending on the effort setting.
The releases are the first to roll out since Amodei called for a slowdown as debate about model safety intensified. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon set off the debate when he posted on X on Sept. 8 that he had quit his job, warning that both labs were 'gambling with our lives.' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also joined Amodei's call.
OpenAI and Anthropic are trying to satisfy customers looking for more cost-effective models and seeking to rein in AI spending. The labs face pressure from companies offering cheaper, open-weight models, including Chinese firms Alibaba, Moonshot AI and DeepSeek.