Anthropic's interpretability team discusses how AI models' thinking mimics biology

Understanding how Claude Code and other AI coding agents function

Under human oversight, a supervising large language model interprets user tasks and delegates work to subordinate LLMs, which can generate code, fix bugs, and run tests, often most effectively for proofs of concept. Incremental backups and versioning are crucial when using such agents, which can lose details during their work as a result of compressing context history to work around memory limitations.

How Anthropic's frontier red team assesses the dangers of its AI tools

The team of researchers deliberately attempts to breach the safeguards in Claude to determine whether the large language model can be used to commit cyberattacks, develop biological weapons, or enable other harmful behavior. Unlike many other red teams, Anthropic shares its findings and how it resolved them publicly to help build transparency and credibility.

Scientists increasingly can't predict what AI will do

Most AI systems are so-called "black box" models, where we only see inputs and outputs while the inner workings remain obscure. This piece, written prior to the launch of ChatGPT, cautions developers to know why and how a system produces its results, and not to sacrifice explainability for accuracy.

LLMs are trained via modeling, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning

Training large language models begins with pretraining the model to predict the next word in a sequence based on finding patterns in massive amounts of text. Patterns are then fine-tuned to model human-written dialogue and to align responses with user preferences.

Visualize how transformer architecture generates an LLM's outputs

Transformer architecture is the neural network framework upon which large language models predict and generate text based on user inputs. This interactive lets you explore the "thinking" a GPT does to generate responses based on your input.

Generative AI tools excel at pattern recognition, not contextual accuracy

Large language models are trained on vast amounts of unstructured data, from which they develop parameters for grammar and associations between words. These connections can introduce errors due to inapplicable reasoning when used on new data in unfamiliar contexts.

How ChatGPT learns to read

The introduction of ChatGPT last fall jumpstarted public interest in the future capabilities of artificial intelligence and what it means for society. Of many somewhat "jargony" terms thrown around, the phrase "Large Language Model" is commonly seen—but also incredibly unclear as to what it means. In the simplest sense, the programs comb through mountains of internet data in response to a question and guess at what should come next (subscription needed).

AI systems identify patterns involving physics and time through 'world models'

These realistic virtual environments, such as driving simulations seen in video games, allow these systems to "learn" properties about reality beyond what can be captured in samples of text, images, and videos. Training AI in these simulated environments can help develop "physical AI" for automated robotic systems. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Artificial general intelligence equals or surpasses human intelligence

AGI incorporates sensory perception, memory, and advanced logical inference systems to move beyond the narrow tasks seen in large language models and chatbots. One of the most significant hurdles in developing AGI is designing systems that learn and can flexibly apply learning across domains.

Neural networks mimic the structure and behavior of real physical systems

Early generative AI systems were inspired by scientific models such as the Ising model, which explains how atoms interact with one another and align in magnets. As these networks have expanded, their behavior has more closely resembled that of quantum fields, enabling them to be used in exploring complex particle physics interactions.

What does it mean for AI to "understand" something?

This Quanta article discusses how programmers are working to create a reliable test for the depth and extent of the knowledge of machines. What does AI know and how does it know it, if it knows anything at all? There's been progress, but it hasn't been easy. Even humans can still be fooled some of the time.

Watch 5 AI models try to resolve variations of the trolley problem

The thought experiment in moral philosophy presents two bad outcomes from which to choose. The experiment reveals the interpretive ethics of AI systems and how they navigate scenarios that are impossible to resolve successfully.

How Model Context Protocol allows AI systems to communicate with databases

Developed by Anthropic, the open-source software serves as an integration layer that standardizes how large language models connect to real-time information sources or tools. Just as a USB-C port serves as a universal standard for many peripherals, MCP streamlines these integrations and provides context about external sources to LLMs in a way that AI can understand.

Transformer architecture was the breakthrough that made AI chatbots possible

It changed how text was translated from a sequential, "one word at a time" method to one where every word in a text is processed in parallel. Advances in positional encoding and self-attention also helped models recognize context and word order better.

Neural implants blur the line between personal intention and machine execution

A key ethical dilemma—the contemplation conundrum—explores whether implants might misinterpret mere imagination as intent to act. Neuroscientists have found no brain signal that clearly marks when someone decides to act, making intent hard to detect in neurotechnological systems.

Unlike the models made by large AI companies, open-weight models can have their safeguards removed or weakened, a process that has become increasingly easy and may expose users to harmful information.

This removal is made possible by developers making the parameters behind their models publicly known. By adjusting these parameters, users can modify how the model processes and provides information. Many of these models can be downloaded locally, preventing developers from seeing how people are using them.

Teaching a robot to laugh

Researchers have designed a shared-laughter AI system that responds to human laughter in order to build a sense of empathy into dialogue. Learn how they did it with this explainer.

AI is not good at understanding satire

Social media has become rife with misinformation. In response, some organizations have deployed AI-assisted programs trying to curb the spread of this inaccurate content. The problem is that misinformation and satire, rhetorically speaking, often use the same kind of language, something AI struggles to understand.

Using deep learning to analyze tumors

The explosive growth of life sciences data is driving artificial intelligence methods to gain traction in biology and medicine — including cancer research.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Language is evolution's great mystery

What we call language is something more specific than communication. Language is about sharing what’s in our minds: stories, opinions, questions, the past or future, imagined times or places, ideas. So what does language mean for humanity, and how did we come to have it? Watch this brief video to discover more.

There’s an artificial intelligence model trained on bankruptcy law

Although it's designed for lawyers, the tool is able to help everyday browsers synthesize important cases and point users to relevant documents about them. One sample using it asks Chatlaw to explain the significance of a recent case and then to define relevant terminology.

Some animals may speak because of duplicated connections in the brain

Neuroscience suggests that connections responsible for motion made during embryonic brain development—such as those connecting hearing and movement pathways that allow reactive motion when started—are duplicated and connected to the larynx in some animals. This allows some mammals and song-learning birds to speak, provided they have the necessary physiological structures.

If aliens visited Earth, it seems unlikely they'd be evolved biological creatures like us

The writer behind Mindless Algorithm, George McGowan, challenges various assumptions about aliens depicted in science fiction. One of those is that aliens are, like humans, individual entities that live, age, and die. McGowan suggests that the difficulty of intergalactic travel and the aliens' technological advancements make it more likely that they'd be an advanced form of AI or digital copies of biological entities.

Challenges for synthetic biology

Can engineering approaches tame the complexity and unpredictability of living systems? An exploration of five challenges for the field and how they might be resolved.

An interesting perspective on whether (and how) brain size matters in cognitive ability

Some brains are bigger than others, but what is the relevance, if any, to brain size and intelligence? This Scientific American article explores the question and offers examples. It also visually compares frontal slices of several mammals' brains, showing that humans don't necessarily have the biggest cerebrums on the block.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Scientists have struggled to pin down Ebola's natural reservoir species for decades, but the available evidence suggests that it's very likely fruit and insect-eating bats found in Africa.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Poison ivy will likely become both larger and more resilient due to climate change.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time