Stop Calling AI Companies ‘Labs’
The author argues that the term 'AI lab' is a misleading marketing tactic used by large corporations to gain scientific legitimacy. It suggests that these companies should be referred to as businesses rather than research laboratories.
Why it matters
It challenges the branding strategies of major tech firms and questions the transparency of their corporate identity in the public discourse.
The term lends an air of scientific rigor to what are really billion-dollar corporations.
Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty. September 4, 2026, 3:25 PM ET Share Save When did AI companies become AI labs ? That term, and the image of studious, exacting white-coated scientists that it conjures, has become curiously entrenched as a descriptor for the businesses swiftly escorting the world into an existentially unsettling future. AI companies themselves have embraced the label: When Chris Olah, a co-founder of Anthropic, addressed the pope earlier this year, he repeatedly referred to his company, one of the most powerful AI enterprises in the world, as a lab. Industry press releases, technology commentators, and news publications have all picked up the word too. You’ll see the term on transit advertisements in San Francisco and in the pages of The New York Times (and, yes, The Atlantic ).
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