About METR
We are a nonprofit research organization that develops scientific methods to assess AI capabilities, risks, and mitigations, with a specific focus on threats related to AI R&D automation and misalignment.
METR has consistently set precedents for catastrophic AI risk evaluations, including the first independent safety evaluations (working informally with Anthropic and OpenAI in 2022), the first loss-of-control evaluations and first agentic dangerous capability evaluations, the first evaluations using finetuning (mentioned briefly here),the first independent evaluations using internal information about training, the first review partnership for company risk analysis, the first embedded redteaming, and the first evaluations of internal deployments.
We’ve been consulted and/or favorably referenced by groups on opposite ends of various spectra, including a16z, Khosla, Gary Marcus, Obama, and Dean Ball, and are known for producing one of the most positive results on AI capabilities (the time horizon trend) and the most negative (our downlift study). We’re generally referenced as the canonical third party assessor, e.g. as the obvious candidate to verify conditional pause agreements.
We believe it is robustly good for policymakers and civil society to have a clear understanding of risks from AI systems, and we are extremely excited to build a team of ambitious, excellent people to tackle one of the most important challenges of our time.