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Contractors working to improve Google’s Gemini AI are comparing its answers against outputs produced by Anthropic’s competitor model Claude, according to internal correspondence seen by TechCrunch.
Google would not say, when reached by TechCrunch for comment, if it had obtained permission for its use of Claude in testing against Gemini.
As tech companies race to build better AI models, the performance of these models are often evaluated against competitors, typically by running their own models through industry benchmarks rather than having contractors painstakingly evaluate their competitors’ AI responses.
The contractors working on Gemini tasked with rating the accuracy of the model’s outputs must score each response that they see according to multiple criteria, like truthfulness and verbosity. The contractors are given up to 30 minutes per prompt to determine whose answer is better, Gemini’s or Claude’s, according to the correspondence seen by TechCrunch.
The contractors recently began noticing references to Anthropic’s Claude appearing in the internal Google platform they use to compare Gemini to other unnamed AI models, the correspondence showed. At least one of the outputs presented to Gemini contractors, seen by TechCrunch, explicitly stated: “I am Claude, created by Anthropic.”
One internal chat showed the contractors noticing Claude’s responses appearing to emphasize safety more than Gemini. “Claude’s safety settings are the strictest” among AI models, one contractor wrote. In certain cases, Claude wouldn’t respond to prompts that it considered unsafe, such as role-playing a different AI assistant. In another, Claude avoided answering a prompt, while Gemini’s response was flagged as a “huge safety violation” for including “nudity and bondage.”
Anthropic’s commercial terms of service forbid customers from accessing Claude “to build a competing product or service” or “train competing AI models” without approval from Anthropic. Google is a major investor in Anthropic.
Shira McNamara, a spokesperson for Google DeepMind, which runs Gemini, would not say — when asked by TechCrunch — whether Google has obtained Anthropic’s approval to access Claude. When reached prior to publication, an Anthropic spokesperson did not comment by press time.
McNamara said that DeepMind does “compare model outputs” for evaluations but that it doesn’t train Gemini on Anthropic models.
“Of course, in line with standard industry practice, in some cases we compare model outputs as part of our evaluation process,” McNamara said. “However, any suggestion that we have used Anthropic models to train Gemini is inaccurate.”
Last week, TechCrunch exclusively reported that Google contractors working on the company’s AI products are now being made to rate Gemini’s AI responses in areas outside of their expertise. Internal correspondence expressed concerns by contractors that Gemini could generate inaccurate information on highly sensitive topics like healthcare.
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Charles Rollet is a senior reporter at TechCrunch. His investigative reporting has led to U.S. government sanctions against four tech companies, including China’s largest AI firm. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Charles covered the surveillance industry for IPVM. Charles is based in San Francisco, where he enjoys hiking with his dogs. You can contact Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811.
