Chatbot on the Royal Mile: AI Firm Anthropic Becomes the Fringe’s Newest Star—But Can Claude Handle a Tech Rehearsal? article by Pete Shaw

Move over street performers, there’s a new act joining the Edinburgh Fringe—and it’s powered by algorithms.

Is this the beginning of Fringe 2.0

In a headline-grabbing encore from 2024, AI research powerhouse Anthropic has been announced as the Official Education Partner of the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Yes, you read that right: the world’s most gloriously chaotic celebration of human creativity is teaming up (again) with a chatbot. Specifically, Claude—Anthropic’s eerily articulate AI assistant who, it turns out, has a knack for brainstorming and marketing solo shows.

Anthropic’s creative and education teams will return with a fresh round of online workshops to show Fringe artists how Claude can assist with planning, storyboarding, and perhaps even surviving the existential dread of one-star reviews. The partnership isn’t just tech showboating—these sessions are designed to “free up time,” according to the schedule, which suggests Claude is less a robot overlord and more your new unpaid assistant with a digital clipboard.

Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Fringe Society, is embracing the debate with typical Fringe chutzpah: “AI is a highly debated topic in society – and rightly so. Thankfully, highly debated topics are the bread and butter of the Fringe.” Translation: the AI discourse is welcome, as long as it doesn’t try to do interpretive dance.

For their part, Anthropic seems determined not to be Silicon Valley’s awkward plus-one at the party. Creative director Everett Katigbak insists Claude isn’t here to replace creatives, but to help them unlock new possibilities—though presumably not the possibility of getting your flyering budget back.

Workshops include everything from time-saving hacks to marketing wizardry, and a good old-fashioned Q&A where artists can grill the Claude team on what happens when your chatbot develops stronger opinions than your director.

So, is this the beginning of Fringe 2.0? Will Claude be reviewing shows next? Or performing them? Or having an onstage nervous breakdown because it can’t get its projection right?

Only time will tell. But one thing’s certain: in 2025, even the world’s most gloriously analogue festival is getting a digital twist.

Because this year, the Fringe won’t just be live—it’ll be livestreamed, brainstormed, and possibly, co-written by Claude.

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