Anthropic confirmed it runs a biology lab in the Bay Area that uses AI models to perform experiments. This week, it announced a major discovery: a new enzyme system that resembles CRISPR.
CRISPR is a natural immune system in bacteria, now widely used for gene editing. The new enzyme system was found in the DNA of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. It can perform operations like cutting, copying, and pasting DNA.
The discovery was made by Claude, an AI model, in just 21 hours. Claude searched through data with about 950 agents that processed 210 million tokens. The lab says the work was mostly done by humans, not AI robots.
This discovery comes after AI leaders said models are becoming powerful and potentially dangerous. Some worry AI could be used for bioterrorism. Others believe AI will help cure many diseases in the next 5 to 10 years.
Anthropic’s lab only does low-risk experiments with human scientists. They do not handle pathogens that infect humans. The lab’s work is similar to research at Stanford and UC San Francisco, which also use AI for biology.
The CEO of Anthropic mentioned that someday Claude might control experiments automatically, with safety measures. For now, humans do all the physical work.
This shows how AI can speed up biological research while keeping safety in mind. It also raises questions about future automation in labs.
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/23/anthropic-says-its-biology-lab-has-already-found-something-big/
