Ever since Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold cracked the half-century-old protein-folding problem in 2021, AI’s role in science has usually been characterized in terms of the quest for similar big breakthroughs—proof that machines could solve problems humans could not. Anthropic, however, is pushing a different idea: that AI agents may matter more in the unglamorous work between discoveries.
In exclusive interviews announcing new partnerships with the Allen Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Anthropic’s head of life sciences partnerships, Jonah Cool, and Grace Huynh, executive director of AI applications at the Allen Institute, said the elite science labs are using Claude-powered AI agents to tackle the analysis, annotation, and coordination bottlenecks that can stretch research timelines into years.
