Assessment of Anthropic Claude 4: Prodigy Held Back by Antiquated Restrictions
Anthropic, a San Francisco-based AI company, has unveiled the fourth generation of its Claude AI models, marking a significant shift in the AI landscape. While tech giants like Google and OpenAI are pushing the boundaries with enormous context windows and multimodal systems, Claude remains grounded with a 200,000-token limit and a text-only approach.
Amidst Google's announcement of its Gemini project and OpenAI's new coding agent, Claude offers hybrid models that can switch between reasoning and non-reasoning modes based on the input. These models aim to emulate the functionality that OpenAI is expected to bring with the release of GPT-5.
However, users should consider the premium pricing that Anthropic is charging for this upgrade. The chatbot app remains at $20, while Claude Max costs $200 per month with 20 times higher usage limits.
In a series of tests, Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4 showcased their capabilities across creative writing, coding, math, and reasoning tasks. Results indicate marginal improvements in some areas, surprising improvements in others, and a clear shift in Anthropic's priorities towards developer-focused features.
In the creative writing category, Claude Sonnet 4 emerged victorious. The model displayed remarkable prowess in producing engaging narratives, maintaining consistent tone, and integrating factual elements seamlessly. Meanwhile, Claude Opus 4 grounded its speculative fiction in credible historical contexts, demonstrating an impressive understanding of cultural nuances.
In the coding evaluation, Claude outperformed Google's Gemini, creating a top-down stealth game with sophisticated mechanics. The model exhibited strong potential for generating functional, maintainable software that follows best practices.
Mathematical reasoning tests revealed that OpenAI's o3 model achieved perfection, while Claude displayed transparency in its problem-solving process. This transparency allows researchers to analyze failures and learn from the solution process, offering educational advantages.
Finally, in non-mathematical reasoning and communication, Claude demonstrated exceptional strategic thinking for hospital ransomware crisis scenarios. Its ability to adapt messages for multilingual populations and tailor attention to individual board member concerns set it apart.
In conclusion, Claude 4 is a significant improvement, but its 200,000 token context window limitation may pose challenges for users working with extensive documentation or maintaining extended conversations. While it excels in creative writing, coding, and non-mathematical reasoning, users looking for a comprehensive AI experience might prefer alternatives like Gemini or ChatGPT. Nonetheless, Claude remains a strong choice for power users focusing on creativity and coding capabilities.
The fourth generation of the Claude AI, including Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4, showcases impressive capabilities in creative writing and coding, outperforming Google's Gemini in the latter. Moreover, Anthropic's technology prioritizes hybrid models that switch between reasoning and non-reasoning modes, aiming to emulate the functionality of upcoming DEFIs, such as GPT-5. However, users should consider the premium pricing for Claude Max, as it is priced at $200 per month with 20 times higher usage limits compared to the chatbot app.
