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Noahpinion ·Future-gazing

Should We "pace" AI Self-improvement?

by Tim Fist

Published 2026-08-09 18:15:22+00:00

If a machine can build a smarter version of itself, how do you slow it down?

0:00 / 25:53 · Narrator Charon

Context

In a guest post published on 9 August 2026, policy researchers Tim Fist and Saif Khan track a strange new mood inside major AI labs: a desire to slow down. The industry is currently racing to build artificial intelligence that can write its own code and run its own experiments. But as that milestone gets closer, the engineers building it are getting nervous. The immediate problem is entirely practical. If letting machines build better machines turns out to be too dangerous, how exactly do you hit the brakes without stalling everything else?

Show notes

An analysis of the debate over intentionally slowing down artificial intelligence, focusing on systems that can research and build better versions of themselves. The authors assess the security risks of automated development, including engineered viruses and the loss of system control. They propose a framework for managing these threats by redirecting computing power toward safety testing and practical applications rather than building more powerful models.

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