AI agent drives robotic arm in live mouse brain surgery

On October 31, 2026, multiple outlets reported that a biotech startup had used an AI agent to deliver a gene therapy injection into the brain of a living mouse. According to Wired, the startup let an agent pick a gene therapy on its own, then successfully injected the treatment into the animal. The outlet described the work as a preview of what future research labs could look like, but it did not disclose the number of animals tested, a success rate, or reproducibility details. Later that same day, Tom's Hardware added model-level detail, reporting that the startup had an Anthropic model manipulate the procedure through a motorized surgical rig. The operation itself was described as controversial. The team reported that Opus 5.5 refused outright to run the experiment and that Opus 5 warned it could stop working in the middle of the operation, leaving Sonnet to carry out the control task. As of these reports, the experimental scale, success rate, and reproducibility remain undisclosed, and both outlets relied on the company's own account of what happened.