Updated
Updated · Futurism · Jul 3
2 Founders' AI Lobster Experiment Collapses After Lobsters Die Before Surgery
Updated
Updated · Futurism · Jul 3

2 Founders' AI Lobster Experiment Collapses After Lobsters Die Before Surgery

1 articles · Updated · Futurism · Jul 3

Summary

  • Two San Francisco tech founders abandoned a plan to implant lobsters with a remote-control kit and link them to an AI agent after the animals died before any neurosurgery began.
  • William Joy said the deaths may have stemmed from getting the tank water's salinity wrong, leaving the tank empty before the planned procedure at Biopunk House.
  • The pair had pitched the project as a first step toward a complex AI agent interfacing with a biological organism, using OpenClaw after first testing basic claw control.
  • The failed attempt unfolded inside a 20-resident hacker house tied to the broader Residency network, where OpenAI CEO Sam Altman serves as an adviser.

Insights

When AI ambitions are stopped by salty water, is the tech industry's biggest flaw its technology or its people?
As the biohacking industry booms, are we witnessing innovation or just well-funded recklessness disguised as science?