Anthropic Uses Brave Search for Claude Chatbot's Web Feature

Earlier this week, Anthropic introduced a new web search feature for its AI chatbot platform, Claude. This update aligns Claude with several other competitive chatbots that have already integrated web search capabilities. Initially, there was uncertainty regarding which search index powered this new feature, with speculation that Anthropic might have created its own search engine. However, evidence indicates that the search functionality is supported by Brave Search, which is developed by the Brave browser team.

This revelation came to light when software engineer Antonio Zugaldia noted that "Brave Search" was included in the "subprocessor list" within Anthropic's documentation. This list details the partners who process data for Claude. Additionally, British programmer Simon Willison discovered that both Claude and Brave yielded the same search results for at least one query, suggesting a shared backend. Willison also found a parameter within Claude's search function named "BraveSearchParams," further supporting the idea that Brave Search is behind this feature.

We have reached out to Anthropic for an official statement and will provide updates if we receive any further communication.

Brave’s involvement in search capabilities is not limited to Claude. The search engine also supports the web search functions for Mistral’s Le Chat, another chatbot platform. In February, Mistral announced its collaboration with Brave to utilize its search API for real-time web results.

Some companies in the AI industry tend to keep details about their search index partnerships confidential, likely to maintain a competitive edge. For instance, OpenAI collaborates with Bing, but it also employs other undisclosed resources to enhance the search experience in ChatGPT and similar products.

AI, search, technology