Biology Competition Format Overhauled as OpenAI's AI Breakthrough Roils Scientific Community

Ginkgo Bioworks has abruptly restructured a major protein design competition, abandoning a high-profile one-on-one format to become an open collaborative challenge—a dramatic reversal driven by growing unease over AI's expanding dominance in scientific research. The Emeryville-based synthetic biology company had originally envisioned "Mike Versus the Machines," pitting Stanford professor Michael Jewett, a leading expert in cell-free protein synthesis, against OpenAI's latest AI agents in a head-to-head competition designed as biology's answer to the 1997 Kasparov-versus-Deep-Blue chess showdown. The first round was scheduled to begin on September 14, 2025.