US-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic has signed a massive deal with the Albanese government, and will offer its services to several Australian research institutes that are aiming to advance disease diagnosis and treatment.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding, the AI safety company will share Anthropic Economic Index data with the Australian government to examine how AI is being adopted across the economy and the implications for workers.
Natural resources, agriculture, healthcare and financial services will be the first sectors involved — with a plan to advance AI training in the workforce.
Working with Australia’s AI Safety Institute, the company will share findings on emerging model capabilities and risks, participate in joint safety and security evaluations, and collaborate on research with Australian academic institutions.
The company has similar arrangements in the US, UK and Japan.
“Australia’s investment in AI safety makes it a natural partner for responsible AI development,” Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei said.
“This MOU gives our collaboration a formal foundation.”
Mr Amodei, who met with the Prime Minister in Canberra to seal the deal, also announced $3m in partnerships with research institutions to use the technology Claude.
Partnerships will be with the Australian National University, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Curtin University.
One project involves a team from ANU’s John Curtin School of Medical Research using Claude to analyse genetic sequencing data to combat rare diseases.
“Turning genomic data into real diagnoses has always depended on highly specialised knowledge — expertise built over decades of clinical experience and deep familiarity with the scientific literature,” Associate Professor Dan Andrews said.
“Until now, that knowledge couldn’t be automated. The clinical pay-off will be transformative: more patients diagnosed, with direct implications for precision medicine.
“With Claude Code, we’re creating bespoke AI tools so quickly that it’s forced us to think much bigger than we ever imagined.
“The size and importance of the problems we can now practically contemplate solving is revolutionary, and we’re only just at the very beginning of what is possible.”
The ANU School of Computing is also embedding Claude into new courses to train future developers and scientists.
The Garvan Institute of Medical Research will use Claude to accelerate genomic discovery in two major research projects.
The first, with UNSW, will build systems that translate human genetic variation into insights about how disease operates in specific cell types, with the goal of identifying new treatments.
The second, with the Centre for Population Genomics, will automate the complex genetic analysis that is currently slowing the diagnosis of children with rare genetic disorders.
Separately, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute will use Claude for its stem cell medicine program to improve identification of therapeutic targets for childhood heart disease.
UNSW Professor Joseph Powell said the project tackled “one of the biggest challenges in modern biology”.
“We’ve become very good at finding the genetic signals linked to disease, but much less effective at understanding how they lead to disease in specific cells,” he said.
“By combining large-scale human genetics at single-cell resolution with Anthropic’s Claude, we can convert those signals into actionable biological insight and identify where they can be targeted for treatment.”
The Curtin Institute for Data Science will use Claude to research projects across health sciences, the humanities, business, law, science and engineering.
