The University of Manchester's Eve robot scientist, now at Chalmers University in Sweden, represents a major leap in autonomous labs. 5 meters square by 3 meters high, Eve uses AI to automate drug design, independently screening chemicals and modeling structures to predict promising compounds. Its 2018 discovery of triclosan's role against malaria parasites demonstrated this capability, identifying a potential treatment for drug-resistant malaria. This shift towards self-driving labs, where AI handles hypothesis generation, experiment design, and execution, is transforming biology from craft work into a factory-like process.

The technology, pioneered by Ross King, is moving beyond incremental advances, with new platforms like Genesis promising cost-effective large-scale experimentation.