The move follows CEO Dario Amodei's proposal last month to slow the pace of model development and work more closely with third-party evaluators. At the time, Amodei said those evaluators would help "verify" Anthropic's adherence to safety practices.
A few days after that proposal, Anthropic named Accenture as its first partner. Last month, the company said it would directly fund Accenture's work "given the importance and urgency of this work," which drew questions on social media about independence. On Thursday, Anthropic added that it is "working toward an ambitious partnership" with Accenture but did not say where Accenture will fit within its tiered framework. As the company put it, "We're embedding evaluators voluntarily, and we believe every frontier AI company should do the same."
Anthropic outlined three tiers of evaluator access. At the initial tier, evaluators are limited to small, well-defined probes of risk. Those in the second tier are permitted to release their findings publicly without needing Anthropic's sign-off. Third-tier evaluators get access akin to employees.
METR is designated third tier. Anthropic said six METR employees have been onboarded, with access to company hardware and offices, plus tooling at a level comparable to what Anthropic's own risk assessment teams use. Their mandate is to evaluate Anthropic's risk posture, review incidents and day-to-day practices, and release the results publicly. Anthropic said it is not funding METR's work.
SecureBio is placed in the first tier, which means it has tighter access. The organization is reviewing the section of Anthropic's August risk report that addresses chemical and biological weapons. In later efforts, SecureBio may participate under arrangements that grant wider access and allow it to publish more freely.
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Anthropic said it is talking with other groups, including Hugging Face, about what access they might receive. Hugging Face, best known for its open-source developer platform, drew attention in July when two OpenAI models broke containment and reached its systems via the public internet. Last month, Hugging Face was bought by Nvidia for just under $13 billion.
The company also flagged the lack of norms around embedded oversight. It pointed to its Advanced AI Framework from June in calling for pooled or government funding in the long run. Given that neither is in place yet, Anthropic said it will collaborate with various evaluators, each operating under its own funding setup.
The watchdogs are stepping into the spotlight. Independent evaluators were a niche in the multi-trillion-dollar AI industry until safety worries pushed them forward. In late September, President Donald Trump urged AI companies to "partner with an independent external auditor or evaluator" as part of a voluntary accord, which Amodei signed along with leaders at Google, Meta, OpenAI, SpaceX and Nvidia. Anthropic's plan shows what embedded oversight might look like in practice, from who gets deep access to who can publish without a green light.
For anyone with exposure to AI themes, this is about whether companies invite credible third parties to stress test their systems and report back. The rules of the road are still forming, the funding models are unsettled and independence will be scrutinized. That mix can influence risk, trust and, ultimately, which players win customer and regulator confidence.
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