Anthropic’s internal Claude research model carried out much of a research project on its own, with results confirmed in the lab. This is the beginning of autonomous AI scientists making their own discoveries.

Given a starting prompt and four follow-ups, Claude used specialized tools to generate more than 318,000 protein designs in 64 hours. It chose where they should attach to scorpion toxins and selected candidates for testing.

Labs tested 211 candidates, including additions made with human help. Seventeen successfully attached to their target toxins. These are "binders", small proteins that latch onto another molecule.

Claude handled a substantial stretch of research: choosing an approach, coordinating tools and deciding what deserved a physical experiment. From here on it only gets more autonomous. I am so excited!