RCTs for Frontier AI Governance: Methodological Challenges and Solutions for Human Uplift Studies
Human uplift studies, or studies that measure the effects of AI access on human performance via randomized controlled trials (RCT) or similar methodologies, increasingly inform frontier AI governance and deployment decisions. While RCT methods are robust in other fields, their interaction with the distinctive properties of frontier AI systems remains underexamined, particularly when results are used to inform high-stakes decisions. We present findings from interviews with 16 expert practitioners with experience conducting human uplift studies in domains including biosecurity, cybersecurity, education, and labor. Across interviews, experts described a recurring tension between the standard...
| Authors | Patricia Paskov, Kevin Wei, Shen Zhou Hong et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CY |
| Published | 11 March 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 30 June 2026 |
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