Joe Benton leaves Anthropic and calls for independent safety oversight
The former oversight-team manager says he will join METR to evaluate AI risks independently.
About these dates
Statement date displayed on the original X post; not converted to UTC.
Joe Benton said he had left Anthropic’s safety team two weeks earlier and would join METR. He argued that AI companies were underinvesting in safety and that the public needed more visibility into their progress and risks. September 11 is the statement date; the post gives only a relative date for his departure. Joe Benton ↗
He called for disclosure of progress toward recursive self-improvement, incident and near-miss reporting, minimum safety standards and independent checks. His biography identifies his former role managing Anthropic’s Scalable Oversight team. Joe Benton ↗Joe Benton ↗
Sources & attribution
- Commentary 11 Sept 2026Departure and independent-evaluation statement ↗
Joe Benton. Original statement.
- Analysis Accessed 11 Sept 2026Joe Benton biography ↗
Joe Benton. Original analysis.