METR says Anthropic’s AI models are improving at roughly twice the historical pace

An independent assessment credits most of the speedup to Anthropic using its own AI systems to help build the next ones Anthropic’s AI models are getting better at roughly double their historical rate, according to a new independent assessment from METR, an AI safety nonprofit. The report, released on November 5, 2026, puts a number on something the industry has speculated about for years. The number is about 1.9 times faster. That works out to two years of progress packed into a single year. What makes the finding notable is its explanation. METR attributes the bulk of the speedup to Anthropic using its own AI systems in research and development. In other words, the AI is helping build the AI. What METR found METR ran its evaluation over an 11-week window, from August 12 to October 29, 2026. During that period, the nonprofit had access to confidential data, interviewed Anthropic staff, and reviewed proprietary performance metrics. The yardstick at the center of the report is a benchmark METR calls the AECI. By METR’s estimate, AECI scores have been climbing at about 1.9 times the historical improvement rate since October 2025. The comparison baseline is the pace observed between M...