Research blueprint: what makes credible AI lab websites

Before building V2 of this site, we conducted a research-blueprint study of award-winning AI lab and research organization websites: Anthropic, Allen Institute for AI, EleutherAI, Apollo Research, Apart Research, MATS, Conjecture, Thinking Machines.

Findings: credible AI lab websites are research-first artifacts, not marketing sites. Across the sample, the same pattern recurs — a mission-specific hero, sparse navigation that puts Research and Policy before Products, dated publications with stable URLs, named team members with verifiable credentials, transparent governance (legal entity, registration, partners), and generous editorial whitespace.

The single highest-leverage credibility move for emerging labs is a dated lab notebook proving execution cadence. Reviewers scan dates first to verify the lab is alive. We're following the pattern starting today.