Anthropic has set up a biology research lab in the San Francisco Bay Area to run physical experiments, the company's Head of Life Sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, confirmed to Reuters.

"We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work," he said. "We absolutely are doing that today." He added that Anthropic does lab work in-house and also partners with outside groups when it makes sense.

The company has not said what the lab is working on. Anthropic launched a drug discovery program called Claude Science in June, aimed at research pharma companies might avoid because it likely wouldn't pay off financially. A spokesperson told Reuters the lab wasn't created specifically, or perhaps only, for drug discovery.

Sources told Reuters Anthropic is looking at making Claude control robots to carry out scientific experiments. Kauderer-Abrams said the company is "in the very early innings of using AI to automate the execution of lab work," with human oversight still essential for safety, and that no clinical trial has been run.

Anthropic has also flagged and stopped multiple scientists using its models to create potential biological weapons, and CEO Dario Amodei has called for a slowdown on advanced AI development.

Source: Engadget