Anthropic confirms it runs a wet biology lab to test its AI models for real

Anthropic has confirmed that it operates a wet biology lab where it can use its AI models to run physical experiments.

The confirmation came in a Reuters report covered by TechCrunch on September 18. “We believe that to do biology, the final test is still, and will be for a while, in real lab work,” Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic's head of life sciences, told Reuters. “We absolutely are doing that today.”

He said the lab operates like most biotech labs: Anthropic conducts some research there while also working with external partners. The company declined to say what the wet lab is working on, beyond that it is not focused on drug discovery.

The move follows a pattern. Anthropic bought Coefficient Bio, a stealth AI biotech, in April in a deal reported at $400 million. This week it also launched a Life Sciences Verification Program, giving vetted bio researchers access to its most powerful models.

Anthropic does not want to appear to be competing with the pharmaceutical industry, where it has numerous major customers and partners, including a recently announced drug discovery collaboration with Novo Nordisk. The company has already faced backlash for launching products perceived as competing with those of its customers.

The lab lands in the middle of a company publicly wrestling with its own risk warnings. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned and warned that the people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade. Anthropic's own alignment lead put the odds of AI exterminating humanity within the next decade at greater than 10%. CEO Dario Amodei published a post last weekend calling on the industry to slow down and institute self-regulation, and has repeatedly called bioterrorism one of AI's biggest risks.

The juxtaposition of the dire warnings and the wet lab has not gone unnoticed in the tech industry. Investor and AI coding startup founder Chamath Palihapitiya posted, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that the group behind “We're All Going To Die” and “Regulate Me Now” is building a wet lab in San Francisco: “I do not recommend this.”

What to watch next is how Anthropic draws the line between its own experiments and its pharma customers' drug discovery work, and whether operating a physical lab changes how the company talks about biosecurity risk.