Claude’s enzyme find began with five examples from scientists

Before Claude found anything, Anthropic scientists gave it five examples of reverse transcriptases, the enzymes that copy RNA into DNA, according to The New York Times. The paper uses that detail to ask how much of Anthropic’s first biology discovery the AI made on its own.

The discovery itself, a novel CRISPR-like system, is confirmed. Phys.org describes it as a previously unknown enzyme system spotted by Claude. The Scientist reports it came from a new Anthropic wet lab set up to work on overlooked biology problems.

According to the Times, the agents then wrote their own software to search databases for similar genes and examine them closely. TechCrunch reports that humans are still, so far, in the loop in the lab.

Five starting examples plus humans in the loop make for a pretty roomy definition of “on its own.”