US's only frontier model evaluator CAISSI has a $10-15M budget and a $174K salary cap
Afinetheorem · x · 2026-10-06
CAISI, recently renamed CAISSI (Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Superintelligence), is essentially the only US government body capable of evaluating frontier models — yet its entire budget is roughly $10-15M per year, and federal compensation bands cap pay at $174,000, possibly 100x below what top AI safety talent earns elsewhere, and less than even nonprofits pay. Additional funding may fall to a new task force but ultimately depends on Congress. Commenters note this government wage-compression problem binds globally: people with these skills won't work for government at that pay in any extended capacity.
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