💼 METR: AI accelerates AI development at Anthropic by approximately two times
METR conducted an independent assessment with high access to Anthropic's internal data — from August 12 to October 29, 2026. Model capabilities on clearly defined tasks are improving approximately 2 times faster than a year ago (1.3x–3x). METR attributes about 80% of this acceleration to the use of AI in its own R&D.
🌍 METR did not find bottlenecks in compute, data, or algorithms — a risk of "compounding" acceleration is possible in the next 12 months, and this is the first independent argument in the debate about the self-acceleration of AI development.
👤 According to the internal AECI index, the growth rate increased from ~15 to ~29 points per year, with employees reporting acceleration of up to ~12x on Model 4. The full report is available at metr.org.
Source 1: https://metr.org/blog/2026-11-05-anthropic-ai-rd-acceleration-assessment/ Source 2: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/N5AmYkRks5CqAxvBg/metr-independent-assessment-of-ai-r-and-d-acceleration-at