METR reviewed internal data and interviewed employees from 12 August to 29 October. It judges that AI use in research probably explains most of the acceleration, without establishing definite causation. Researchers consider that actual acceleration could be closer to 1.3 or 3 times the earlier pace.
The report mainly describes assistance to researchers, rather than their complete replacement by autonomous systems. Anthropic redacted some evidence important to the findings, limiting public verification of the conclusions.