Our director explains Epoch AI's mission and how we decide our priorities. In short, we work on projects to understand the trajectory of AI, share this knowledge publicly, and inform important decisions about AI.

Since we started Epoch three years ago, we have engaged in hundreds of projects and achieved a wide audience. Yet, one question I often get asked is, ‘What is Epoch?’

In a way, this is an easy question to answer. We are a nonprofit research organization with the mission of improving society's understanding of the trajectory of AI. Simply put, we are doing what we can so that decisions about AI are informed by the best possible evidence.

To achieve this, we are curating data and conducting high-quality research into some of the most significant trends in AI. We share most of this work publicly, aimed at a broad audience, including AI policy experts, journalists [...]

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Outline:

(01:53) What we do

(02:42) We curate and analyze data on AI trends

(04:15) We develop benchmarks to measure advanced AI capabilities

(05:54) We provide independent evaluations of AI models

(06:43) We provide consultations and commissioned research

(10:23) What we are not

(10:57) We are not an AI development company

(11:54) We are not an AI policy think tank

(12:58) We are not a company incubator

(14:09) Closing words

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First published:
June 27th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mComqq8utkRrMbBRC/epoch-what-is-epoch

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Epoch: What is Epoch?” by Zach Stein-Perlman

LessWrong (30+ Karma)