Anthropic says Claude spotted a novel enzyme system. Scientists urge restraint

Anthropic says an AI-driven search through genetic data flagged what it calls ART, a previously undescribed enzyme system in bacteriophages—the viruses that infect bacteria. The claim is not that Claude invented a biological tool: the underlying reverse-transcriptase enzyme had been seen before; the purported discovery is the overlooked combination of that enzyme, a companion protein, and repeated DNA sequences. That layout resembles part of CRISPR, a gene-editing system, but ART’s actual job is still unknown and the work is a preprint rather than peer-reviewed research. Outside scientists say the pattern is worth investigating, but Anthropic may be getting ahead of the evidence by suggesting a potentially programmable DNA-editing system; the real test is whether AI can repeatedly turn huge databases into lab-verified discoveries.