Anthropic’s newly unveiled biology lab claims its artificial intelligence agents independently discovered new biotechnology enzymes, sparking an immediate dispute over prior research. Computational biologist Mario Rodríguez Mestre at the University of Copenhagen stated that he and his colleagues have studied these exact molecules—which Anthropic calls array-associated reverse transcriptases, or ARTs—for four years.
Anthropic Claims AI Independent Discovery of ART Enzymes
During a presentation last week, artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced that its AI systems used software written by agents to search oceanic and soil microbial gene databases. The agents identified genes for reverse transcriptases located near RNA molecule arrays in jumbo phages. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei touted the biological research during a United Nations address on Wednesday, emphasizing that such applications will accelerate rapidly to address persistent human diseases.
The company stated in a published report that Claude took the initial steps of biological discovery unaided. Anthropic stated on Sunday that it is unaware of any previously published work describing the specific ART system discovered and confirmed that user transcripts are not used to train the models.
University Researchers Dispute Novelty and Provenance
Mestre challenged those claims, stating that the enzymes identified by Anthropic’s AI are the identical systems his team has investigated since 2022. Mestre worked previously as a consultant for ReNegade Therapeutics, which filed a patent in 2023 covering reverse transcriptases discovered by Mestre, listing him as a co-inventor. He subsequently joined the University of Copenhagen to continue studying these enzymes, which his research group nicknamed “jumbotrons.”
Over the past three years, Mestre and his colleagues regularly used Anthropic models for coding and drafting manuscripts, sharing details about their findings with the company. Mestre questioned whether Anthropic’s model genuinely reasoned its way to the discovery or drew upon uploaded research data, raising the possibility that user research inputs influenced future model versions.
Broader Questions Surrounding AI Scientific Breakthroughs
This dispute mirrors similar scrutiny faced by OpenAI after researchers claimed their AI solved a long-standing mathematics puzzle, only for a leading mathematician to note he had used the company’s tool to work toward the solution. Anthropic, valued potentially up to $2 trillion as it prepares to go public, maintains that its biology team lacks access to user transcripts and that Claude’s identification of the RNA arrays and reverse transcriptase proteins represents a genuine breakthrough.
Article Summary and Outlook
- The Dispute: University of Copenhagen researcher Mario Rodríguez Mestre states that enzymes claimed as novel AI discoveries by Anthropic have been studied by his academic team for four years.
- The Background: Mestre previously consulted for ReNegade Therapeutics, which filed a patent on related reverse transcriptases in 2023.
- Anthropic’s Position: The company maintains that Claude identified the jumbo phage reverse transcriptases independently without utilizing user transcripts or prior proprietary inputs.