New computer platform lets lab machines work together using artificial intelligence

A newly developed software setup allows different laboratory devices to communicate smoothly and lets artificial intelligence run experiments without human help. Sina Barazandeh, a computational biologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, watched a robotic arm move a plate between liquid-filling instruments and analysis tools entirely on its own. This setup uses a system called the Model Hardware Standard, which lets an artificial intelligence agent take control of different equipment. The project is the result of joint work between the US artificial intelligence company Anthropic and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus located in Ashburn, Virginia. Labs normally struggle to connect equipment because machines come from different makers and use separate programming languages. While older tools like the Standardization in Lab Automation system exist, they do not link machines directly to artificial intelligence agents. Scientists usually spend months planning and setting up experiments by writing custom code or adding extra hardware parts. Using the new platform, Barazandeh's team at Carnegie Mellon set up an experiment in just a few hours. Alek Kemeny, a technical staff member at Anthropic who led the project, explains that the software acts like connective tissue to link computers directly to lab instruments.