Anthropic Says 950 Claude Agents Found Crispr-Like Enzyme in 21.5 Hours
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Sep 29
Anthropic Says 950 Claude Agents Found Crispr-Like Enzyme in 21.5 Hours
2 articles · Updated · WIRED · Sep 29
Summary
Anthropic said Claude identified an enzyme system it calls ART in jumbo phages after 950 AI agents searched genomic databases for unusual reverse transcriptases in 21.5 hours.
The model sifted through more than 200,000 candidates, narrowed them to several thousand new-looking sequences, and flagged repeat DNA patterns that Anthropic said resemble Crispr.
Scientists said the result is intriguing but unproven: the technical report is not peer-reviewed, only one physical experiment was included, and researchers still do not know whether ART can edit genes.
Several experts argued the novelty lies more in the speed and pattern-finding method than in the biology itself, noting the reverse transcriptase had already appeared in a 2021 paper and may be a retron rather than a new Crispr system.
The claim also lands amid scrutiny over AI reproducibility and data access, after a researcher said Claude's finding mirrored his unpublished work and raised fresh "snoop-and-scoop" concerns.