Anthropic confirms Bay Area wet biology lab

Anthropic's disclosure of a wet biology lab comes against a backdrop of its own executives warning about AI's catastrophic risks. Just last week, CEO Dario Amodei said he believes AI could cure most major diseases in the next 5–10 years. But the company has also faced internal and external alarm: researcher Jacob Coxon resigned warning that the people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade, and Anthropic's own alignment lead put the odds at greater than 10% that AI could exterminate humanity within the next decade. Amodei has repeatedly called bioterrorism one of AI's biggest risks and last weekend published a post calling on the industry to slow down and self-regulate.

The lab fits into Anthropic's recent life-sciences push. It bought Coefficient Bio in April, launched a Life Sciences Verification Program this week to give vetted bio researchers access to its most powerful models, and published reports on accelerating protein design and uplifting bimolecular modeling. Anthropic says it does not want to appear to compete with the pharma industry, where it has numerous customers and partners, including a deal with Novo Nordisk on joint drug discovery.

The juxtaposition of dire warnings and a wet lab has not gone unnoticed. Investor and AI coding startup founder Chamath Palihapitiya posted on X, somewhat tongue in cheek, that the group behind such hits as 'We're All Going To Die' and 'Regulate Me Now' are building a wet lab in SF, adding, 'I do not recommend this.' How Anthropic squares its safety messaging with hands-on biological experimentation is likely to remain a point of scrutiny for partners and critics alike.