Claude Sonnet 5 selected and administered gene therapy in a mouse experiment

What happened

Gabriel Ocana-Santero reports that Claude Sonnet 5 selected a gene therapy, brain target, and injection parameters, then controlled a surgical device to treat an epilepsy mouse model. A licensed veterinarian approved every irreversible step and held a physical emergency stop. During surgery, the agent correctly detected a device range problem and refused to proceed until Ocana-Santero fixed the code manually. He says the mouse recovered well; treatment efficacy was not reported, a technical report is expected, and the results have not been peer-reviewed.

Read next

• More changes in today’s briefingMistral releases improved Mistral Large 4 open weights for coding and cybersecurity

The story so far

Exin Therapeutics cofounder Gabriel Ocana-Santero reported that his team used Claude Sonnet 5 to select a gene therapy, brain target and injection parameters, then control a surgical device to treat a mouse model of epilepsy. Ocana-Santero said the mouse recovered well, but that does not establish whether the treatment worked; the results have not been peer-reviewed. A licensed veterinarian approved every irreversible step and held a physical emergency stop that could cut power to all motors. The setup also imposed fixed limits, including an injection-volume cap the agent was forbidden from bypassing. During surgery, the agent correctly detected a device range problem and refused to proceed until Ocana-Santero manually fixed the code.