METR President Addresses Independence and AI Risk Evaluation

Chris Painter, president of the non-profit research organization METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research), stated that the organization has conducted third-party evaluations of AI models from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, and Amazon since 2022. METR aims to identify and disclose risks related to AI becoming uncontrollable. The organization emphasizes its independence by refusing funding from frontier AI companies, relying instead on diverse donors while utilizing free model access provided by the firms. Painter noted that while current evaluations are voluntary and limited in oversight, METR strives to maintain transparency in its reporting and contract disclosures.