There is now a bench, a rack of pipettes and a robot arm inside one of the AI industry’s most safety-minded companies. Anthropic says the Bay Area biology laboratory it has been running quietly uses its own Claude models to drive real experiments rather than simulations.
The lab works on fundamental biology rather than drug discovery, according to Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic’s head of life sciences. He told Reuters the company runs some research itself and works with outside partners, and that real bench work remains the final test for biological hypotheses.
The move follows Anthropic’s April acquisition of Coefficient Bio, a stealth AI biotech. This week it also launched a Life Sciences Verification Program that gives vetted researchers access to its most capable models, and published work on protein design and biomolecular modelling.
Anthropic is trying not to look like a pharma competitor. It counts major drugmakers as customers and has announced a joint discovery deal with Novo Nordisk.
The timing has drawn notice. Chief executive Dario Amodei published a call for the industry to slow down and self-regulate, and has repeatedly named bioterrorism as one of AI’s biggest risks, even as his own company builds biology capacity.
