Independent custody of the measurement record.
Latent Trait is a research institution focused on the careful construction, calibration, application, and preservation of measurement instruments for artificial intelligence.
Ground a fast-moving field in durable measurement science.
Artificial intelligence changes quickly. The scientific requirements for valid measurement do not.
The institution exists to develop measurement methods whose validity does not depend on the interests of a particular model vendor or the popularity of a particular benchmark. Its role is scientific: construct instruments, preserve provenance, publish methods and results, and maintain continuity in the measurement record.
Scientific independence
Measurement and interpretation should be separable from the systems being measured.
Provenance
Each result should retain the calibration, conditions, instrument lineage, and analysis required to understand and reproduce it.
Continuity
Institutional memory allows measurement to remain comparable as individual models, items, and methods change.
Measurement for decisions, not decisions themselves.
Latent Trait is concerned with the quality and meaning of measurement. Governments, researchers, vendors, institutions, and the public may use those measurements for different purposes. The institution's scientific responsibility is to make the measurements as interpretable, reproducible, and traceable as possible.