Anthropic, Google score win by nabbing OpenAI-backed Harvey as a user

Popular ineligible AI instrumentality Harvey volition present beryllium utilizing starring instauration models from Anthropic and Google, moving beyond strictly utilizing OpenAI’s, Harvey announced successful a blog station connected Tuesday.

This is noteworthy due to the fact that Harvey is 1 of the OpenAI Startup Fund’s astir palmy early-backed portfolio companies. The OpenAI Startup Fund is an OpenAI-associated fund to backmost companies processing products connected apical of AI technologies, chiefly OpenAI’s own. While Harvey says it’s not abandoning OpenAI, simply adding much models and clouds, this is inactive a immense coup for OpenAI’s large competitors. 

Harvey is 1 of the archetypal 4 startups that the OpenAI Startup Fund backed, it said in December 2022. That was backmost erstwhile OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was inactive moving the fund. (The others successful that archetypal cohort see Descript, Mem, and Speak.)

Harvey, which has grown similar huffy since then, is present a $3-billion-valuation startup, it said successful February, erstwhile it announced a $300 cardinal Series D led by Sequoia, with different large names similar Coatue, Kleiner Perkins, and the OpenAI Fund piling in.

Interestingly, Google’s task arm, GV, led Harvey’s $100 cardinal Series C successful July 2024 (and the OpenAI Fund participated successful that round, too). But Harvey didn’t instantly follow Google’s AI models aft it enactment Google’s firm task steadfast connected its headdress table. (GV participated successful Harvey’s Series D arsenic well.)

So, what convinced Harvey to determination beyond OpenAI’s models now? The startup’s internally developed benchmark, dubbed BigLaw, showed that a wide assortment of instauration models are increasing progressively adept astatine a scope of ineligible tasks and immoderate are amended astatine circumstantial tasks than others.

Instead of spending its efforts grooming models, Harvey figured, it could simply clasp high-performing, reasoning instauration models from different vendors (e.g. Google and Anthropic via Amazon’s cloud) and past fine-tune them for the ineligible market.

Using a assortment of models volition besides assistance arsenic Harvey creates AI agents, the institution says.

“In little than a year, 7 models (including 3 non-OAI models) present outperform the primitively benchmarked Harvey strategy connected BigLaw Bench,” Harvey wrote successful the blog post.

Harvey’s benchmark besides showed that antithetic instauration models are amended astatine circumstantial ineligible tasks than others. For instance, it says Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro “excels” astatine ineligible drafting but “struggles” with pre-trial tasks similar penning oral arguments due to the fact that the exemplary doesn’t afloat recognize “complex evidentiary rules similar hearsay.” 

OpenAI’s o3 does specified pre-trial tasks well, according to Harvey’s testing, with Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet pursuing adjacent behind.

Results from Harvey’s interior benchmarking.Image Credits:Harvey

In its blog post, Harvey says that it volition besides present articulation the growing ranks of those sharing a nationalist leaderboard of exemplary benchmark performance. Its committee volition fertile however large reasoning models are doing connected ineligible tasks. And the institution won’t conscionable boil rankings down to a azygous number, but volition besides people probe wherever “top lawyers supply nuanced insights into exemplary show not captured by single-score benchmarks.”

So, not lone is OpenAI-backed Harvey adopting competitors’ models, it is besides amping up the unit connected its backers (including Google) to support proving themselves. Not that OpenAI should interest overmuch connected that score. While AI benchmarking is growing progressively analyzable and somewhat political, this is simply a satellite wherever OpenAI inactive shines. 

“We are incredibly fortunate to person OpenAI arsenic an capitalist successful Harvey and cardinal collaborator successful our product,” Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg told TechCrunch successful a statement. “And, we are energized to adhd to our options for customers arsenic we proceed to service the needs of our customers globally.”