Nucleus's Vitruvian claims 14-point embryo IQ boost; researcher calls it misleading marketing
anshulkundaje · x · 2026-09-20
Nucleus Genomics launched Vitruvian, a set of genetic optimization models claiming to optimize embryo DNA for 14 IQ points (trained on 1M+ people, validated across 40k+ siblings, 7M+ genetic markers), invoking Bostrom's Superintelligence. A widely shared rebuttal dissects the marketing: there's no editing—just selection among existing embryos; "14 points" is the estimated spread between worst and best of 10 embryos using unvalidated scores, and the real gain vs. a random embryo is only about +7 points.
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