Anthropic and OpenAI have reported substantial large language model assistance in their own research and development without claiming full recursive self-improvement, or RSI, where an AI system autonomously designs and trains its successor. Anthropic’s September 2026 update showed Claude authoring over 80% of merged code and handling 26% of core R&D tasks autonomously—up sharply from early 2026—while stating no measured workflow runs fully closed-loop. OpenAI reached its “automated research intern” milestone in September, logging 3.1 agent-workdays per human workday, but retains a March 2028 target for a fully automated AI researcher. Co-founder Jack Clark shifted his personal RSI timeline forward to 2027 based on rapid gains in research-taste benchmarks, and both labs emphasize safety limits and human oversight amid calls for frontier pacing and potential regulation. These verified capability jumps without an announced closed loop shape trader views on near-term public declarations.