Vitalik Buterin says a last resort to “slow down” risky forms of superintelligent AI would be to have the capability to restrict available global computing power for a year or two.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says a temporary “pause” to worldwide available compute could be a way to “buy more time for humanity” in case of a possibly harmful form of AI superintelligence.
In a Jan. 5 blog post following up his November 2023 post advocating the idea of “defensive accelerationism” or d/acc, Buterin said super intelligent AI could be as little as five years away — and there’s no telling the outcome would be positive.
Buterin says a “soft pause” on industrial-scale computer hardware could be an option to slow AI development if this happens — reducing global available compute power by up to 99% for 1 to 2 years “to buy more time for humanity to prepare.”
