AI’s quiet safety gatekeepers are stepping into the spotlight

Co-founder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei looks on as US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence at the White House in Washington, DC, on Sept. 29, 2026. Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty ImagesTwo months ago, independent evaluators occupied a relatively sleepy corner of the multitrillion-dollar artificial intelligence industry. Now they're being asked to come to its rescue. While Anthropic and OpenAI are the heart of a fierce debate over whether they can safeguard their advanced models and grow their businesses simultaneously, the companies are seeking support from a handful of small third-party groups like Model Evaluation and Threat Research (METR), Apollo Research and Transluce.The evaluators, which mostly operate as nonprofits, are still finding their footing in an industry where capital is flowing at historic levels and new models are rolling out faster than ever. Their primary role has been to assess AI model capabilities and risks, and to call attention to instances where the technology behaves badly.In the absence of a federal push for regulations, evaluators have taken on outsized importance. Anthro...