Anthropic has confirmed to TechCrunch that it operates a wet biology lab in the Bay Area where it uses its AI models to run physical experiments.

The company says the lab functions like most biotech labs, conducting some research internally while also working with external partners.

Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic‘s head of life sciences, told Reuters that the final test for biology work is still real lab work, and that Anthropic is doing that today.

The company declined to give specifics on the lab’s projects but said the main focus is fundamental biology, not drug discovery.

Anthropic appears to be positioning the lab to avoid competing with the pharma industry, where it has major customers and partners; it recently announced a deal with Novo Nordisk for joint drug discovery.

The company also launched a Life Sciences Verification Program this week to give vetted bio researchers access to its most powerful models, and it has published reports on accelerating protein design and uplifting biomolecular modeling.

The news comes amid ongoing concern about AI risk.

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned with a warning that people building AI earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade, and Anthropic‘s own alignment lead has given odds greater than 10% that AI could exterminate humanity within the next decade.

CEO Dario Amodei published a post last weekend calling for industry slowdown and self-regulation, and he has repeatedly called bioterrorism one of AI’s biggest risks.

The juxtaposition of these warnings with the wet lab has drawn attention, including a tongue-in-cheek post from investor Chamath Palihapitiya noting the group behind ‘We’re All Going To Die’ and ‘Regulate Me Now’ is building a wet lab in SF.