Q16 Is Recruiting Volunteers for Its Quarterly AI Capability Assessment
Panelists, scouts, and writers. The time commitment is bounded, and the first full cycle runs October 1–31.
If you’re interested in AI safety, especially as regards what may happen once superintelligence arrives, then knowing how close we are to its arrival is itself a safety question.
That assessment, however, shouldn’t rely on frontier-lab CEOs, all of whom have a clear conflict of interest.
Q16 PBC (the public benefit corporation behind Frontier Watch) is launching a quarterly, panel-based assessment of global AI capability built on independent expert judgment, published free. This is structured elicitation, aggregated across a panel of volunteers. As far as we know, it’s the only quarterly, panel-based reading of its kind.
We’re recruiting a small volunteer team for the Q3 2026 cycle. You can apply for one or more of the following roles - panelists, scouts, and writers:
Panelists complete a short elicitation instrument once per quarter — independent answers, roughly an hour of focused work, due mid-month after each quarter closes.
Scouts feed the evidence base between cycles: papers, incidents, policy changes, and capability demonstrations, posted with a line on why each matters.
Writers help turn panel synthesis into the published assessment.
In terms of the time commitment, it might be a few hours per quarter for panelists, an hour or two a week for scouts and writers, concentrated in the two weeks after each quarter ends. The first full cycle runs October 1–31, with onboarding and a practice round in September. One eligibility note for panelists: we ask that you not be employed at any of the labs we assess.
Coordination happens on Buzz, an open-source collaboration platform from Block (desktop app; Mac, Windows, or Linux). Invites go out by email after a short exchange about your background and interests.
Interested? Write to info@q16pbc.com with a few lines about yourself and which role fits. Questions and criticism of the methodology are welcome in the comments.
