Anthropic is proposing a new standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data lives, called Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Anthropic has released a new open-source tool to connect AI assistants directly to the information they need to inform their responses or carry out tasks. The new Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides a universal connection to all sorts of data sources,

Anthropic says the software has already been adopted by several tech firms. Companies can connect their LLMs to external systems in a bid to make them more useful. An electronics maker, for example, could equip an LLM with the ability to answer customer support requests by giving it access to a repository of troubleshooting guides.

In the case of Amazon and Anthropic, the companies maintain that teams are writing ‘low-level kernels,’ so that parts of the system can interface directly with the Trainium processor as hardware, in the words of spokespersons, the ‘Trainium silicon.’

Since last September, the tech giant has pumped $8 billion into the artificial intelligence start-up, a sign of intense competition in developing tools that are reshaping the tech sector.