On Wednesday, US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic announced a significant breakthrough from its molecular biology lab. The company reported the discovery of a previously unknown enzyme system, identified by its Claude AI model. This finding is being presented as evidence of AI’s potential to accelerate fundamental research in the field of molecular biology.
Some 950 Claude-powered software agents combed through a database of DNA sequences for 21 hours, according to the company. The agents found more than 200,000 genes for one type of enzyme and picked out 20 worth a closer look — work that would take an expert scientist weeks or even months. Because of its risks, cited the discovery on Wednesday in remarks to the UN Security Council, which he addressed by video link, anthropic chief Dario Amodei , who recently called for slowing AI development.
Anthropic said its researchers’ involvement was limited to the initial instructions and the lab experiments, with the AI agents working autonomously to decide which leads to pursue. The function of the newly identified system, dubbed ART, remains unknown, Anthropic said. Feng Zhang, one of the pioneers of CRISPR and a professor at MIT and the Broad Institute, called the identification of the repeated DNA fragments “genuinely intriguing” and said it “merits further investigation,” in remarks released by Anthropic. All experiments are carried out by human scientists, Anthropic said.
The company added that its initial experiments suggest the system could, like CRISPR, be programmable. The results, published as a preprint, have not yet been reviewed by other scientists. Amodei did not rule out Claude eventually operating lab equipment itself, with appropriate safeguards.
