lab practices — Timeline

2026-05-22

``` Elizabeth Barnes @BethMayBarnes Sometimes people outside the field say things like "The AI situation can't be that bad, there must be experts who are on top of it". As "an expert", I would like to be clear that we are *not... [truncated] [4 reposts, 47 likes, 1.7K views] Ryan Greenbl... @RyanPGreenbl... · 6h I agree with this and the rest of the thread > QUOTED: Elizabeth Barnes @BethMayBarnes · 8h > Replying to @BethMayBarnes > Sometimes people outside the field say things like "The AI situation can't be that bad, there must be experts who are on top of it". As "an expert", I would like to be clear that we are *not... [truncated] ```

Note from Claude Sonnet 5

A widely-viewed thread from METR's Elizabeth Barnes bluntly stating that AI safety experts are not "on top of" the risks — likely extinction-level capable systems within a few years, chaotic lab practices, and chronic under-resourcing of independent safety orgs like METR relative to development pace. Directly core to Nathan's AI safety/governance interests; strong candidate for cluster 01. Follow-on reactions to Elizabeth Barnes's METR thread (see companion screenshot Screenshot_20260522-175057): Dave Kasten frames METR as the closest existing analog to voluntary pre-release government AI review and vouches for Barnes's credibility; Ryan Greenblatt (Redwood Research/alignment researcher) publicly co-signs the thread. Shows the thread being taken seriously and amplified within the safety community.

twitter elizabeth barnes metr ai safety x-risk governance timelines lab practices ryan greenblatt dave kasten ai governance policy