About
Signal & Thread is an independent measurement lab in Melbourne. Acquisitions keep converting independent evaluators into vendor features. We are structured so that our only saleable asset is being believed.
The charter
We do not build, sell, resell or integrate AI systems. Ever.
No success fees. Findings are reported regardless of outcome.
Clients may keep a report confidential. No one may edit one.
When we tune a model, the score card says so. The re-grade uses the same public methods, and anyone can re-run them.
Working both sides of one procurement requires disclosure to both parties. Otherwise we refuse the work.
Every report carries a signed independence declaration and a measurement-uncertainty statement.
The name
Signal is from signal detection theory, the discipline our measurements rest on: whether a system’s confidence carries information or only noise. Thread is the through-line: evidence that stays connected to the system as it changes, version after version. A grade is a signal. Keeping it true over time is the thread.
Founders
Adjunct Professor of Emerging Technology at Monash University and co-director of Paper Giant, a strategic design consultancy. A computer science graduate with a doctorate, he has spent a decade leading human-centred research for Australian public-sector agencies. At Signal & Thread he leads engagements, evidence translation and the government practice.
Full biography→A registered clinical psychologist (DPsych) with a background in cognitive science and computer science, and the author of the research programme behind the lab’s instruments: twenty-plus studies applying clinical psychometrics and signal detection theory to AI models. At Signal & Thread he leads the instruments, the analysis and the research programme.
Full biography→Biographies
CO-FOUNDER
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, MONASH UNIVERSITY
CO-DIRECTOR, PAPER GIANT
Chris has spent his career between technology and the people it lands on. A computer science graduate with a doctorate, he is co-director of Paper Giant, a strategic design consultancy, where he has led human-centred research programmes for Australian government agencies for over a decade — work that sits exactly where Signal & Thread now operates: understanding what public institutions need before they can trust a system with real decisions.
He is an Adjunct Professor of Emerging Technology at Monash University. At Signal & Thread, Chris designs engagements, translates measurement into evidence that accountable officials can use, and leads the lab’s work with government.
CO-FOUNDER
REGISTERED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, DPSYCH
AUTHOR OF THE RESEARCH PROGRAMME
Jon-Paul is a registered clinical psychologist with a doctorate in psychology and a background in cognitive science and computer science. His clinical training is the lab’s method: a century of psychometrics built to measure minds that cannot be opened, and to tell real signals from confident noise.
In 2026 he published more than twenty studies applying that training to AI models — the validity screen, the 524-question monitoring battery, the 33-model atlas, and the reliable-change statistics behind the lab’s re-testing. The papers are public, with code and data. At Signal & Thread, Jon-Paul leads the instruments, the analysis, and the research programme.
In a technical briefing we run the validity screen live, walk through an evidence pack, and tell you honestly whether your use case needs one.
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