AI now leads a quarter of AI research at Anthropic, company data show (opens the source in a new tab)
- A WSJ column spotlights an Anthropic chart tracking how much of its AI research is done by AI. The share where AI leads the work, with a human supervising, rose from 1% in March to 26% in August; none of it is yet fully autonomous.
- The idea behind it is recursive self-improvement: each better model helps build a better one. Lab leaders call it vital to stay ahead and also a serious risk, and Anthropic itself says it is not inevitable but could arrive before institutions are ready.
- Co-founder Jack Clark has pulled his own estimate for it forward to next year.
Why it matters If AI does most of the work on its own successors, progress could speed up beyond what companies, regulators and markets plan for. Who keeps oversight, and how, becomes a practical question rather than a science-fiction one.
Other side The numbers come from Anthropic's own AI rating its own work, on a company scale with no outside audit. Leading a task under supervision is not the same as independent invention, and a company heading for a listing has reasons to show fast progress.