Anthropic, a company known for developing advanced AI models, has announced that its AI system, Claude, has "autonomously discovered" a new enzyme system that resembles the mechanism used in CRISPR, a powerful gene-editing technology. This discovery marks the first outcome from Anthropic’s newly established wet lab, which combines traditional biological research with AI. The finding is also an early test of Claude’s potential to contribute to scientific research, as the company prepares for its public offering. According to Anthropic, Claude identified the enzyme system by analyzing a large database of DNA sequences. The company noted that its scientists were only minimally involved, providing an initial prompt and performing laboratory work. Over a span of 21 hours, nearly 950 instances of Claude processed 210 million data units, or "tokens," before one instance detected an unusual repeating pattern in the dataset. This pattern was flagged for human review, leading to further analysis and laboratory testing. Further investigation revealed the discovery of a previously uncharacterized enzyme system found in bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. While Anthropic is still working to determine the exact function of this enzyme system, the company emphasized the importance of sharing such findings early. They aim to showcase Claude's capabilities and provide the scientific community with insight into their research. However, it remains unclear whether this discovery will have practical applications or be as transformative as CRISPR. Anthropic’s announcement comes at a time when AI companies are increasingly focusing on scientific research to demonstrate the value of their advanced models. The company is also trying to attract more scientists to its lab and expand into areas like drug discovery. Meanwhile, OpenAI, another major AI company, has been tackling complex mathematical problems with limited regard for traditional academic norms in the field.