Evaluator Independence May Become Labs' Talking Point for Regulator Shopping

BronsonSchoen · x · 2026-09-13

BronsonSchoen pushes back on claims that third-party AI eval orgs are captured by ex-lab insiders:

• METR struggled insanely hard to get even very insufficient model access, suggesting labs don't favor evaluators
• Ex-lab employees moving into evaluation is a valid career path, not a scandal
• Core warning: frontier labs' founder networks are so interconnected that cherry-picking which COIs count lets labs dismiss unwanted evaluators in the name of "rigor" or "independence"

He previously warned "evaluator independence" is becoming a talking point for "regulator shopping", noting people from GDM already posting along these lines.

Related event: METR Independence Under Fire: AI Audit Ecosystem Accused of Revolving Doors and Regulatory Capture(31 posts)→

Original post →

More from Safety

• OpenAI blocks weapons details for teens, adds auto-ending chats fixated on violence — rohanpaul_ai · 2026-10-31
• First machine-checked security proof for end-to-end x86 process execution published — banteg · 2026-10-31
• Stealthy agent worms would route model calls through compromised machines — matthew_d_green · 2026-10-31
• Halloween joke nails data harvesting: full candy bar for your dad's Gmail access — Danhightower · 2026-10-31
• Professor runs Pangram on 50 pre-ChatGPT self-published novels: zero false positives — TuhinChakr · 2026-10-31
• Researcher disputes Berkeley law professors' brief over Pangram false-positive claims — TuhinChakr · 2026-10-31

Safety channel →