Exclusive-Anthropic quietly sets up biology lab as it ramps AI drug program

Anthropic, an artificial-intelligence startup, has quietly established a laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area to conduct physical biology experiments as part of its expanding drug research program. The company aims to develop treatments for rare diseases and has moved beyond computer simulations to real-world laboratory work.

Anthropic's head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, confirmed the existence of the wet lab, stating that the final test for biological research will still be carried out in real lab settings. The startup is leveraging physical automation to push the capabilities of its AI models, such as Claude, to direct robotic units for executing science experiments with minimal human intervention.

However, Anthropic emphasizes that human oversight and involvement remain crucial for safety. The company's move into drug discovery is part of its broader ambition to tackle diseases that the pharmaceutical industry often overlooks, a goal driven by the company's CEO, Dario Amodei, who has a personal connection to the importance of such efforts.