By Stephen D. Turner
Publication Date: 2026-04-09 12:23:00
Artificial intelligence is quickly learning to design and conduct biological experiments autonomously, but the systems designed to control these capabilities are struggling to keep up.
AI company OpenAI and biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks announced in February 2026 that OpenAI’s flagship model GPT-5 has autonomously designed and conducted 36,000 biological experiments. This was done through a robotic cloud lab, a facility where automated devices remotely controlled by computers conduct experiments. The AI model suggested study designs, and robots executed them, feeding the data back to the model for the next round. Humans set the goal and the machines did much of the work in the lab, reducing the cost of producing a desired protein by 40%.
This is programmable biology: designing biological components on a computer and building them in the physical world, with AI closing the loop.
For decades, biology largely moved from observation to understanding. Scientist…
