{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-06-openai-biobasicsbench/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-06-openai-biobasicsbench/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-11-06-openai-biobasicsbench","date":"2026-11-06","date_precision":"day","short_title":"OpenAI's BioBasicsBench","deck":null,"takeaway":"On 6 Nov 2026 OpenAI announced BioBasicsBench, built with the enzyme-design company Ligo from 100 tasks drawn from real experiments.","category":"benchmark","category_label":"Benchmarks","importance":2,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"partly","labels":["Partly confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"OpenAI: Measuring how AI agents handle everyday wet-lab science","url":"https://openai.com/index/measuring-how-ai-agents-handle-wet-lab-science/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"openai.com"},{"n":2,"title":"OpenAI on X (~658k views)","url":"https://x.com/OpenAI/status/2118782708767965238","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"x.com"}],"official":2,"filed":"2026-11-07","updated":"2026-11-07","orgs":["OpenAI","Ligo"],"title":"OpenAI and Ligo release BioBasicsBench, 100 tasks testing whether AI agents read routine wet-lab data correctly","summary":"On 6 Nov 2026 OpenAI announced BioBasicsBench, built with the enzyme-design company Ligo from 100 tasks drawn from real experiments. It tests whether agents interpret raw lab data, spot errors and recognize when evidence does not support a conclusion. OpenAI ties it to tracking scientific progress, biosafety and biosecurity. The X post had ~658k views.","key_facts":["100 tasks from real experiments; partner Ligo (enzyme design)","Stated aims: show where models need to improve on everyday lab analysis; track what gains mean for 'scientific progress, biosafety, and biosecurity'","The blog post could not be read in this run (HTTP 403), so model scores are not recorded here"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["benchmark","biology","agents","biosecurity"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nOpenAI published the benchmark on its blog and on X. This entry is written from the X post only.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nIt is a lab-built measurement of agents on routine biology analysis, the kind of capability that lab safety frameworks track.","disputed":[],"related":[],"people":[],"posts":[{"id":"x-openai-2118782708767965238","title":"“A new way to measure how AI agents handle the routine analyses of wet-lab…”","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-openai-2118782708767965238/"}],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-11-07","type":"filed","text":"Created (lab X list)"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-11-07","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-11-07","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-11-07"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":190,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":129,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":220,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":159,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}