New biotech startup at Stanford is run by thousands of AI agents

A brand-new biotech startup with thousands of AI agents is sprouting at Stanford.

Stanford professor and AI researcher Dr. James Zou runs the virtual biotech lab. The startup was launched by humans, but it is run by AI agents.

The work at the biotech startup is done at a physical lab, but the research is done by AI agents that have been trained and programmed to do it.

"AI is coming up with hypotheses, questions, telling us how to design experiments, actually acting more like a partner, a colleague,” Zou said.

According to the professor, the startup has more than 30,000 AI agents.

The goal of the startup is not to replace humans in the lab but to give humans more time to work on what they do best.

“You want the human scientists to really focus on the more creative aspects of discovery,” Zou said.

Humans are also needed to keep track of the AI agents, watching their every move so none of them go rogue.

The AI agents can take on different personalities while working in the virtual lab. Some of the agents become leaders, others become critics. The human scientists said it's actually a very similar dynamic to what they see in a physical lab.