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Anthropic confirmed to TechCrunch that a wet biology lab is up and operating in the Bay Area — AI models running physical experiments, scope pinned to fundamental biology, one day after its bio-access program opened applications
“Anthropic has confirmed it runs a wet biology lab where its AI models can run real experiments — and it says the focus is fundamental biology, not drug discovery.”

Industry events

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Verified · Sep 21, 2026

Independently verified

Trump polled a rename for 'Artificial Intelligence' — Superior, Extreme, or Supreme — while calling the safety backlash a Democratic hoax and announcing an AI Force and a coming AI 'Czar', with no duties named

“The President is polling a rename for AI — Superior, Extreme, or Supreme Intelligence — while calling the safety backlash a hoax and promising an AI Force.”

The posts landed Saturday, September 19, 2026, on Truth Social — all quotes below are TechCrunch's rendering of them. The rename: 'many people think that the words "Artificial Intelligence" are inaccurate, and very ineloquent, relative to AI, or Artificial Intelligence.' with a poll offering 'Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence, or Supreme Intelligence' — '(The poll is still ongoing as of publication time)' per TechCrunch, and The Verge's screenshot transcription independently confirms the same three options. The hoax post: attempts at 'the decimation, or destruction, of AI' are one of 'many' Democratic hoaxes — the list runs 'RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, Global Warming, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, Men in Women's Sports, [and] Transgender for Everyone.' — and Trump wrote he 'will not stand by and let this happen,' saying the hoax 'began with an attack on our Data Centers, until people realized how wealthy and prestigious they were for the Communities in which they were built.' TechCrunch's counterpoint is flat: Trump 'did not offer any evidence to back up his claim that widespread suspicion of AI and data centers is not organic and sincere. (Both Republicans and Democrats have taken aim at data centers, and New York recently became the first state to halt permits for large projects.)' The industry side: he will 'cherish [the AI industry,] help it, and watch over it, as it grows' — brackets TechCrunch's — and TechCrunch reports he is 'forming an AI Force, similar to the Space Force that he established in his first term.' Then: 'To that end, I will be announcing, in the near future, the AI "Czar" — Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!' The vacuum, per TechCrunch: 'The president did not say what the AI Force and AI czar's duties will entail.' The context, per TechCrunch: the safety debate 'recently intensified' after an AI researcher said he was quitting Anthropic over concerns that the leading AI companies 'earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade' and are 'gambling with our lives'; Amodei subsequently released a plan to 'pace the frontier,' which was 'seemingly endorsed' by Sam Altman and Elon Musk; and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who called Trump on-stage during the All-In Summit, agreed the backlash is a 'hoax' and insisted 'we're not going to let' a slowdown happen.

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Research & benchmarks

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Verified · Sep 21, 2026

Independently verified

Anthropic confirmed to TechCrunch that a wet biology lab is up and operating in the Bay Area — AI models running physical experiments, scope pinned to fundamental biology, one day after its bio-access program opened applications

“Anthropic has confirmed it runs a wet biology lab where its AI models can run real experiments — and it says the focus is fundamental biology, not drug discovery.”

The confirmation, per TechCrunch's lede: 'Anthropic has a wet biology lab in the Bay Area where it can use its AI models to run physical experiments, it has confirmed to TechCrunch.' The purpose, from Anthropic's head of life sciences Eric Kauderer-Abrams — told Reuters, per TechCrunch: 'We believe that to do biology, the final test is still, and will be for a while, in real lab work,' and 'We absolutely are doing that today.' Per TechCrunch, he added that the lab operates like most biotech labs: Anthropic conducts some research there while also working with external partners. The run-up, per The Verge: 'It's been a poorly kept secret that the company was working towards building its own wet lab. It was hiring biologists and even bought startup Coefficient Bio in April.' The scope: Anthropic declined to give specifics on what the lab is working on, and said the main focus is fundamental biology, not drug discovery — TechCrunch adds Anthropic 'doesn't want to give the appearance of competing with the pharma industry, where it has numerous major customers and partners (e.g., it just announced a deal to work with Novo Nordisk on joint drug discovery).' The same-week pairing: Anthropic's own page introduced the Life Sciences Verification Program on September 17, 2026 — 'gives life science professionals access to our Mythos, Opus, and Sonnet models with a refined set of safeguards more permissive for biology-related work' — with 'dozens of organizations' already onboarded, a High-risk Use add-on of which the page says 'It removes all safeguards that block life sciences requests' (single project, six-month renewal), and high-risk grants live for Claude Opus 5 and Claude Sonnet 5 while Claude Mythos high-risk 'will remain limited to a small set of entities with additional vetting' as the company works 'with the US government' to broaden them. The safety backdrop, per TechCrunch: the resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who warned that 'the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade'; TechCrunch's sentence that 'Anthropic's own alignment lead gave the odds at greater than 10% that AI could exterminate humanity within the next decade'; and Amodei's 'post last weekend calling on the industry to slow down and institute self-regulation' — the outlet noting he 'has repeatedly called bioterrorism one of AI's biggest risks.' The outside reaction, per TechCrunch: Chamath Palihapitiya's X post, 'somewhat tongue in cheek': 'The group behind such hits as: "We're All Going To Die" and "Regulate Me Now" are building a wet lab in SF. I do not recommend this.'

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