Rising alarm about AI’s perils is thrusting into the spotlight a collection of little-known research groups focused on the technology’s safety—and fueling questions about their ability to effectively monitor the industry’s biggest companies.

Both Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised in recent days to embed evaluators from such outside research organizations inside their companies to help ensure they develop AI at a safe pace. Other executives including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also endorsed the idea of embedding independent evaluators in companies.