“I can’t think of good interventions for ensuring third-party model access.” by Cleo Nardo

Summary I'm increasingly convinced that model access parity is a big deal and we are not on track to achieve it. By model access parity, I mean a small gap between (i) the model access for lab employees and (ii) the model access for external safety researchers, third-party auditors, and other actors trying to make the future go well). See here for an introduction. The basic case is this: (1) Regardless of the strategic landscape, outsiders are well-suited to many crucial activities. (2) Outsiders will be positioned to spend billions of dollars towards making things go well.[1] (3) AI labour seems like the most promising route for spending money to tackle these activities. However, during the months where outsider activities are highest leverage, the best internal models might provide 2 to 60 times more uplift than the best publicly-available models.[1] So without model access parity, this AI labour might be massively less effective. In this post, I attempt to sketch some interventions. But I don't think any of them are great, mostly because they don't seem sticky. I wouldn't be surprised if you can think of something much better. My overall judgement Outsider orgs should try to directly advocate [...] ---Outline:(00:12) Summary(01:24) My overall judgement(03:13) List of interventions(03:56) Workarounds if we lose model access parity The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: July 2nd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iEhqyMGGD4BHQapLA/i-can-t-think-of-good-interventions-for-ensuring-third-party --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.