Anthropic announces: Claude has discovered a new CRISPR-like enzymatic system

Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, has announced the discovery of a new enzymatic system associated with repetitive DNA sequences, similar to the well-known CRISPR system. The discovery was made autonomously by the artificial intelligence Claude within the company's new research group and dedicated life sciences laboratory.

The company explained that Claude analyzed a vast collection of DNA sequences associated with proteins of unknown function, starting from an exploratory analysis. After 21 hours of research conducted by approximately 950 AI agents, which processed 210 million tokens, one of the agents identified the repetitive pattern. The authors emphasize that the results are intriguing but that it is not yet clear whether this discovery will prove truly useful. The article describing the discovery is self-published and has not yet been peer-reviewed by the scientific community.

The announcement follows the establishment, in the spring of 2026, of an internal research group at Anthropic to verify whether general AI models could systematize and accelerate this type of biological discovery. The company presented the new dedicated life sciences laboratory, highlighting a new research method in which AI agents collaborate with humans at every stage of the process.

CRISPR is a revolutionary gene-editing technology discovered in bacteria, which allows for precise modification of DNA. Its functioning is based on repeated sequences in the bacterial genome that, together with specific enzymes, form a defense system against viruses. This discovery, awarded the Nobel Prize, has paved the way for gene therapies and applications in agriculture.

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company founded by former OpenAI researchers, has developed Claude, an advanced language model. In the spring of 2026, the company established a research group to explore whether general AI could accelerate discoveries in the life sciences. The idea, as explained by CEO Dario Amodei, is that of a new research method in which AI agents collaborate with human scientists at every stage, from data analysis to hypothesis generation.

The process that led to the recent discovery involved Claude analyzing millions of uncharacterized genomic sequences, selecting promising candidates, and producing human-readable analytical reports—a task that would take a researcher months. This approach could represent a paradigm shift in biological research, although the practical value of the specific CRISPR-like system discovery still needs to be validated by the scientific community through the peer review process.