Neel Nanda defends METR's finances: free tokens are expense coverage, not funding
NeelNanda5 · x · 2026-09-14
Neel Nanda (Google DeepMind) responded on X to critiques of eval org METR's independence. He argues the free tokens METR receives from AI companies are closer to expense reimbursement than investment, so its finances seem fine — though he acknowledges this model has historically made fundraising harder, pulling researchers away from their work. He concedes there are other reasonable critiques of METR's independence. METR is the lab behind the "task length doubles every 7 months" finding and prototyped the Responsible Scaling Policies now adopted by nine AI developers.
Related event: METR independence dispute: Neel Nanda's defense rebuffed by Gary Marcus(5 posts)→
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