Anthropic's claimed AI-discovered enzymes may have been known: Copenhagen researcher pushes back
JFPuget · x · 2026-09-29
Per the New York Times, Anthropic last week claimed its AI agents discovered novel enzymes (ARTs) with biotech promise in its new biology lab — but the claim faces pushback.
- Computational biologist Mario Rodríguez Mestre of the University of Copenhagen says his team has studied these enzymes for four years, and for the past three has regularly used Anthropic's models for coding and manuscript drafting, sharing key findings about the enzymes with Claude along the way.
- He argues the key question isn't whether ARTs were already known (they were), but whether Anthropic's AI genuinely reasoned its way to the results or was guided by his team's shared work. He also worries his data informed future model training.
- Others note a Danish scientist had already filed a patent on the finding — though he reportedly used Claude only for administrative tasks, not as a discovery agent.
Related event: Copenhagen Scientists Question Anthropic's Claimed AI Scientific Discovery(2 posts)→
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