- Anthropic’s AI model Claude spent 21 hours and roughly 210 million tokens searching DNA databases, leading to the discovery of a novel enzyme system named ART.
- CRISPR co-inventor Feng Zhang reviewed the findings and called them “genuinely intriguing,” though CEO Dario Amodei concedes the system’s precise function and utility remain unclear.
- Shares of gene-editing companies including CRISPR Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, and Beam Therapeutics dipped following the announcement.
Anthropic announced Wednesday that its AI model Claude discovered a novel molecular machine hidden within virus DNA, publishing findings that have drawn both praise and skepticism from the scientific community. The enzyme system, named ART (array-associated reverse transcriptases), was found inside bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—positioned next to DNA resembling a CRISPR array, the gene-editing mechanism that revolutionized modern medicine.
However, CEO Dario Amodei admitted via social media that its “precise function, biotechnological utility (if any), or level of significance is not yet clear.” Consequently, the announcement represents a discovery without confirmed application, an unusual milestone for a company touting AI-driven scientific breakthroughs.
Claude analyzed over 200,000 reverse transcriptases, narrowing the pool to 3,500 unusual candidates, then to 20 worthy of deeper investigation. The computational effort required roughly 950 AI agents working in parallel, processing approximately 210 million tokens over 21 hours of continuous search. Amodei claimed that “at minimum it is work I would have been proud to do as a PhD student,” a statement that drew criticism from academics who noted no doctoral student would present findings of unknown significance as a completed achievement.
Meanwhile, Feng Zhang, the MIT and Broad Institute researcher who helped pioneer CRISPR, reviewed the pre-print and called it “genuinely intriguing,” adding that “this is an exciting example of how AI agents can contribute to biological discovery.” Supporters highlighted that the process itself may matter more than the initial result, with human scientists reviewing AI-generated hypotheses and conducting all wet lab work.
Wall Street responded promptly, with shares of gene-editing firms including CRISPR Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, and Beam Therapeutics dipping on the news. This discovery follows Anthropic’s July claim that Claude cracked post-quantum cryptography, a result that held up only after extensive human verification on systems never deployed in practice.
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