Claude Sonnet 5 performs gene therapy surgery on a mouse without human input

What's Happening

• Researchers gave Claude Sonnet 5 a list of 19 gene therapies and instructed it to reduce seizures in an epilepsy mouse model, according to The Decoder.
• The AI agent selected the drug, target brain region, and stereotactic coordinates based on scientific literature.
• The model operated a custom motorized surgical device equipped with cameras, making 32 observations during the procedure to track the injection and monitor for bleeding.
• A connection drop during surgery caused the agent to detect its target position was outside the device's physical range, prompting it to refuse further action.

Why It Matters

This experiment demonstrates AI models moving beyond text generation into physical medical research. Delegating complex surgical planning and execution to an agent accelerates preclinical trials while introducing new hardware integration challenges.