AI scientist

The New York Times reports on Anthropic's claim that its AI independently contributed to a scientific discovery in biology, reportedly involving enzyme research. The question of whether the system truly made the discovery on its own, or with substantial human guidance, is fueling debate among scientists and AI researchers about how to evaluate such claims.

Researchers report an AI system that can independently generate scientific hypotheses in biology and then validate them without human intervention, producing new discoveries on its own. The announcement was carried by science news outlets including Phys.org and EurekAlert. The work points to a shift in how research could be conducted, with machines moving from analytical tools to active drivers of the scientific process.

A Nature paper describes a method for embedding watermarks into proteins designed by artificial intelligence without disrupting their biological function. The technique would let scientists mark AI-designed sequences so their origin can be verified, addressing growing concerns about accountability and safety in computational protein design. Researchers say such watermarking could help distinguish machine-generated biomolecules from natural ones as AI tools become widely used in biotechnology.

Political scientist Ian Bremmer shared figures from the 81st UN General Assembly: Donald Trump delivered the longest speech at 5,203 words, while Nicaragua gave the shortest at 574. Of 194 speeches, 116 mentioned artificial intelligence, with only four referring to "super intelligence," underlining how central AI has become to the global diplomatic agenda.