Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

FutureHouse Launches “AI Scientist,” An Agent To Accelerate Scientific Progress

• Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The non-profit organization FutureHouse launched AI Scientist on Thursday, a program featuring four AI agents designed to help scientists accelerate research and make new scientific discoveries. The agents, Crow, Falcon, Owl, and Phoenix, have different specializations and were built for various purposes, and can help automate research.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• FutureHouse launched AI Scientist, a program featuring four specialized AI agents: Crow, Falcon, Owl, and Phoenix.
• Each agent is designed for a specific purpose and performs different tasks, all aimed at accelerating scientific breakthroughs.
• The platform is currently free and available for researchers to test the AI models.

FutureHouse’s CEO and co-founder, Sam Rodriques, shared more details about the new technology in a post on the social media platform X.

“We are launching the first publicly available AI Scientist, via the FutureHouse Platform,” wrote Rodriques. “Our AI Scientist agents can perform a wide variety of scientific tasks better than humans. By chaining them together, we’ve already started to discover new biology really fast. With the platform, we are bringing these capabilities to the wider community.”

Rodriques explained that Crow is a general-purpose agent that provides concise answers, Falcon automates literature reviews and offers deep analysis, and Owl helps scientists verify what studies or research have been conducted on a given topic. Phoenix is an experimental agent specializing in chemistry.

“The three literature search agents (Crow, Falcon, and Owl) have benchmarked superhuman performance,” added Rodriques. “They also have access to a large corpus of full scientific texts, which means that you can ask them more detailed questions about experimental protocols and study limitations that general-purpose web search agents, which usually only have access to abstracts, might miss.” The agents can also verify quality and avoid reliance on low-quality papers.

FutureHouse also released an API to help researchers and scientists integrate the AI agents into their workflows.

Rodriques clarified that the AI agents released by FutureHouse cannot yet operate autonomously, but they are capable of performing complex tasks. The organization expects to roll out further updates and improvements soon. The platform is currently free to use, although pricing plans may be introduced in the future. The team also shared a video demonstrating how to use the technology with applied examples.

Watch our team explain how you can use the FutureHouse Platform to come up with new hypotheses and make new discoveries. pic.twitter.com/2fA5Sne6DE — Sam Rodriques (@SGRodriques) May 1, 2025

Multiple companies and organizations are developing scientific advances boosted by artificial intelligence. Recently, Swiss researchers developed a system to detect planets that may harbor life in other planetary systems , and another study based on a Google AI model is attempting to decipher communications between dolphins .

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

Anthropic Releases Integrations To Connect Popular Apps To Claude

• Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

The AI company Anthropic launched a new feature called “Integrations” on Thursday, allowing its chatbot Claude to connect with popular apps and tools. The startup also announced plans to expand its Research and web search capabilities.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• Anthropic launched a new feature called “Integrations,” which allows Claude to connect to popular apps and tools.
• Asana, Cloudflare, PayPal, and Zapier are among the platforms currently connected to Claude.
• Integrations and advanced Research are available in beta for Enterprise, Team, and Max users.

According to Anthropic’s announcement , the tech company explained that the new Integrations feature builds on its earlier Model Context Protocol (MCP) program—an open standard that allowed Claude Desktop and other AI apps to connect to tools and data through local servers. With this update, Claude can now use MCP to connect not only to local servers but also to remote servers and online programs, expanding its ability to interact with cloud-based tools and services.

Today we’re announcing Integrations, a new way to connect your apps and tools to Claude. We’re also expanding Claude’s Research capabilities with an advanced mode that searches the web, your Google Workspace, and now your Integrations too. pic.twitter.com/zSvPBZYq43 — Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) May 1, 2025

Anthropic explained that when users connect more apps to their AI model, the technology can expand its capabilities and provide more accurate solutions.

“When you connect your tools to Claude, it gains deep context about your work—understanding project histories, task statuses, and organizational knowledge—and can take actions across every surface,” states the document. “Claude becomes a more informed collaborator, helping you execute complex projects in one place with expert assistance at every step.”

Users can now integrate up to 10 popular platforms, such as Asana, Cloudflare, PayPal, and Zapier, and Anthropic expects to add more soon. Those interested in developing integrations with Claude can also do it following Anthropic’s guidelines.

“Developers can also create their own Integrations in as little as 30 minutes using our documentation or solutions like Cloudflare that provide built-in OAuth authentication, transport handling, and integrated deployment,” states the document.

Anthropic shared multiple videos on its website explaining how Integrations can be used with the multiple platforms currently connected.

The startup also explained that the Research feature has been updated and can now perform more advanced and complex tasks—as it takes up to 45 minutes to research and provide more detailed and accurate results—, as well as use search and Google Workspace for support.

Both features, Integrations and advanced Research, are available for Enterprise, Team, and Max plans—in beta—and will be available on Pro soon.

Anthropic launched its new Max plans for its chatbot Claude a few weeks ago with two versions: Expanded Usage for $100 and Maximum Flexibility for $200 per month.