Mario Rodríguez Mestre said his University of Copenhagen team had already identified the DNA pattern Anthropic recently presented as its AI lab’s first molecular-biology “discovery.”
Anthropic’s 950 Claude agents had spent 21 hours sifting data and flagged a repeating pattern around a known enzyme, not a new sequence or a demonstrated biological mechanism.
The claim drew criticism from biologists, including Lucas Harrington, who argued that spotting unusual gene clusters is often preliminary work and not the hard part of establishing a true discovery.
Mestre also questioned whether Anthropic learned from his prior chats with Claude; Anthropic denied that, but he said he is stopping use of the chatbot.
The dispute highlights broader skepticism toward AI companies framing tool-assisted scientific screening as autonomous discovery, a standard critics say risks overstating progress and blurring how science advances.