Claude Powers Up: The Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Haiku Story
Anthropic's AI assistants made a giant leap in capabilities (at the same price)
If you read my previous post about ChatGPT 4o and Claude, you know I've been closely tracking the evolution of these AI assistants. As I mentioned before, I simply can't resist test-driving every version that hits the market (some people collect stamps, I collect experiences with AIs). So back in October 2024, when Anthropic announced Claude 3.5 Sonnet and a model called Haiku, I immediately knew I had to try them out and share all the exciting details with you. With the release of Claude 3.7 Sonnet just a couple of days ago, understanding these earlier models provides important context.
What was happening?
Back in October 2024, Anthropic made two important announcements: an improved version of Claude 3.5 Sonnet (which became immediately available) and a new model called Claude 3.5 Haiku. It was like when your favorite TV show not only announced a new season but also a spin-off that promised to be just as good.
At the time, I shared a summary table with the benchmarks of these models, comparing them with the previous Sonnet 3.5 model and also with their "cousins" from OpenAI and Google.
If you want to know more about how to interpret these types of benchmark tables, take a look at my post about AI benchmarks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet (New): the brain of the family
Imagine that your favorite Claude 3.5 Sonnet went on a spiritual retreat and returned basically as Tony Stark. That's what happened with the new Sonnet back then.
A wonderful piece of news was that all these improvements came without a price increase. It was like when your favorite café improves quality but keeps the price the same (does that still exist anywhere?).
What excited me most at the time was seeing how Sonnet 3.5 (New) surpassed established models like GPT-4o in programming tasks. This wasn't just an incremental improvement; we were talking about a significant leap that redefined what we could expect from an AI assistant. For example, in specialized programming tests, Sonnet achieved 49% accuracy, outperforming all publicly available models at that time. If you're interested in programming, let me know and we can delve deeper into that in another post.
Beyond code, the new Sonnet excelled in:
Deep understanding of context and nuances
More precise and well-founded responses
Analysis and resolution of complex problems
Exceptional consistency in long conversations
Better handling of specific instructions
Now, let's talk about the new member of the family that was introduced: Claude 3.5 Haiku.
Claude 3.5 Haiku: speed with smarts
Now, let's talk about the other exciting model that was announced: Claude 3.5 Haiku.
Haiku was positioned as Anthropic's fastest and lowest-cost model. What made this particularly impressive was that in this new generation, this nimble model achieved the same performance level as Claude 3 Opus (the most powerful model of the previous generation), but with significantly greater speed and lower cost. It was scheduled to become available to developers through Anthropic's API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud by the end of October 2024.
While initially Haiku was announced to only work with text with image support coming later, it's worth noting that Haiku now does support image processing capabilities.
In-depth comparison: Finding your perfect Claude match
At the time of their release, I analyzed each model to help you decide which would best suit different needs:
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Strengths:
Maximum performance in complex tasks
Superior contextual understanding
Leader in programming and technical analysis
Ability to handle multifaceted tasks
Better handling of long conversations
Ideal use cases:
Deep analysis and detailed reports
Projects requiring maximum precision
Generation of extensive and technical content
Code development and debugging
Research and information synthesis
Claude 3.5 Haiku
Strengths:
Exceptional response speed
Excellent price-performance ratio
Perfect for batch processing
Superior energy efficiency
Ideal for specific and repetitive tasks
Ideal use cases:
Real-time responses
Processing multiple requests
Chatbots and virtual assistants
Real-time data analysis
Applications requiring low latency
The future of conversational AI
These advances marked a crucial moment in the evolution of AI back in late 2024. The emergence of specialized models like Sonnet 3.5 (New) and Haiku 3.5 suggested a future where AI would increasingly adapt to our specific needs, rather than following the "one-size-fits-all" approach we had seen until then.
Sonnet's ability to surpass GPT-4o in programming was particularly interesting to me. It was a perfect example of this new era, where competition between models drives substantial improvements in their capabilities, directly benefiting users.
Most exciting was seeing how these improvements came while maintaining the same prices. This suggested we were entering a phase where high-quality AI would become increasingly accessible, democratizing access to these powerful tools.
Trends setting the path
Looking at these developments in October 2024, I envisioned three main trends emerging from these launches:
Specialization: The division between Sonnet and Haiku showed a trend toward more specialized models, optimized for specific use cases.
Efficiency: The focus on maintaining or reducing costs while improving performance suggested a future where AI would be more accessible and sustainable (did someone say free?).
Healthy competition: The surpassing of established benchmarks indicated that market competition was driving significant innovations.
These trends I identified then have continued to shape AI development, leading up to the release of Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
My experience with these models
After trying Sonnet back then (yes, this original post was written with its help), the improvements were evident in every aspect. The quality of responses, understanding of context, and consistency were notably superior to the previous version.
At the time, I was especially excited to try Haiku when it would become available through the API. The promise of having Opus-level power with greater speed and lower cost opened up many possibilities for new projects.
And as an additional note: Anthropic also announced a beta function that would allow Claude to use computers like a human would. Imagine an AI controlling a computer, clicking, scrolling, etc. That feature has since evolved, but I'll cover those developments in a future post about Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
What did you think?
Did you experiment with Sonnet 3.5? What applications did you find for Haiku? With the release of Claude 3.7 Sonnet, I'm curious how your experience with these earlier models compares. I'd love to know about your experiences and how your AI journey has progressed.
See you in my next post,
G
P.S.: If you find that café that improves its coffee without raising the price, don't forget to let me know! 😉
Hey! I'm Germán, and I write about AI in both English and Spanish. This article was first published in Spanish in my newsletter AprendiendoIA, and I've adapted it for my English-speaking friends at My AI Journey. My mission is simple: helping you understand and leverage AI, regardless of your technical background or preferred language. See you in the next one!