Free Republic

For years, we've been asking whether artificial intelligence can write like us, draw like us, code like us, or eventually replace us. Anthropic just gave us a more interesting question: Can AI notice something in nature that human scientists have been staring past?On Wednesday, Anthropic announced that its Claude AI had identified what researchers believe is previously unrecognized biological system hidden in the DNA of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. The system contains a reverse transcriptase, a nearby partner gene, and a long array of repeating DNA sequences. Anthropic calls it ART, short for array-associated reverse transcriptases.From Anthropic:Today, we’re sharing...

A new, highly resistant strain of HIV that appears to develop rapidly into AIDS has been diagnosed in a New Yorker who had not previously undergone antiviral drug treatment, says the city health department, which is holding a press conference today. While drug resistance is increasingly common in people who have been treated for the human immunodeficiency virus, city officials called the case “extremely rare.” The patient, who now has AIDS, is a male in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal intercourse, often while using crystal methamphetamine. The patient appears to have developed AIDS within...

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:06 p.m. ET NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's first diagnosed case of highly drug-resistant HIV in a person never before treated for the virus is ``a wake up call'' to anyone who has unprotected sex, the city's health commissioner said Friday. The patient, a man in his mid-40s who had unprotected sex with other men, contracted a strain of HIV that is ``difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS,'' said the Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden. The diagnosis ``is a wake up call to men who have...