Think tank · Policy · Santa Monica, California · Est. 1948
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization that conducts rigorous research to help leaders make evidence-based decisions. RAND’s mission is to “help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis,” supported by sponsored research and philanthropic support, and it serves a wide range of clients including U.S. government agencies and other public and private stakeholders.
In the AI space, RAND has organized its emerging-technology work around centers such as the RAND Center on AI, Security, and Technology (RAND CAST), which brings policy analysis together with technical expertise to address issues like AI and biosecurity (via its AIxBio research area) and frontier AI risk evaluation and governance. RAND CAST operates Canary, a RAND–METR initiative focused on advancing safer frontier AI through risk evaluation and biosecurity research. Institutionally, RAND is also structured as a research organization that operates four federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), and its careers and operational materials describe RAND as both a federal contractor and an independent research institution.
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RAND announced that The Audacious Project committed approximately $38 million to RAND and METR for Canary, a research collaboration aimed at helping make future AI systems safer through risk-evaluation tools and predeployment evaluations.
Current Artificial Intelligence Does Not Meaningfully Increase Risk of a Biological Weapons AttackRAND reported findings from research assessing large language models available as of summer 2023, stating that they do not measurably increase operational risk of biological weapons attacks by non-state actors in a red-team exercise.