Claude now leads 26% of the work that builds the next claude, up from under 1% in february.…
claude now leads 26% of the work that builds the next claude, up from under 1% in february. anthropic runs about 30,000 concurrent agents and audits itself weekly — sampling 15,000 tasks with independent judges — with 90% of its r&d at least ai-collaborative.
the lab that sets the frontier is now its own best customer.
Context
Verified date: Anthropic and Epoch AI published their measurements on Sep 18, 2026, per Santage. Anthropic says Claude could lead 26% of the work involved in developing its future models as of August, up from under 1% in February. Anthropic's page uses an automation rating scale from Epoch AI that runs from AL0, no AI involvement, upward.
WelclAI's analysis says the ratings came largely from Claude itself, and OpenTools says the weighting, human review and monitoring boundaries explain what the figure means.
The 26%, the under 1% in February and the Sep 18 date match Anthropic's research page and the coverage. The post says Claude leads 26%; the sources say 'could lead' as of August, and a critique notes the ratings came largely from Claude. The 30,000 concurrent agents, the weekly audit of 15,000 tasks and the 90% AI-collaborative figure were not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. in the excerpts read. 'The lab is its own best customer' is the author's opinion.
Related work
- WelclAI analysis ↗Critique of the ratings.
- OpenTools ↗Sep 19, 2026.
- Santage summary ↗Three indexes, Sep 18.
Watch next
- Read Anthropic's page for how the automation levels are rated and who rates them.
Sources
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 1 October 2026 at 07:09 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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