AI model Claude discovers CRISPR-like enzyme system, Anthropic says
AI giant announces discovery amid global debate about how to safeguard against catastrophic risks.
AI giant Anthropic has announced the discovery of a new enzyme system in bacterial DNA that it said could “represent a new gene editing mechanism” similar to the groundbreaking CRISPR tool.
Anthropic said on Wednesday that its signature AI model, Claude, had “autonomously” discovered the system at the prompting of researchers working at the company’s recently established biology research lab in San Francisco.
The tech giant said the system showed characteristics found in only a handful of other “programmable” structures and displayed a “pattern reminiscent of CRISPR”, a genome-editing mechanism found in bacteria.
“What stands out is its ability to recognize an unusual biological pattern that was difficult to detect before, and to pursue it comprehensively as a research question,” Qi told Al Jazeera.