Can We Structurally Detect Self-Preservation Drives in Recursively Self-Improving AI?
coherence · x · 2026-09-12
- The author frames recursive self-improvement as a tractable question: can a system acquire a terminal interest in its own continuation, and can we detect that structurally before its behavior becomes strategically misleading?
- Drawing on ideas first encountered at Starlab 25 years ago, the author argues the gap between early thought experiments and systems we can now interrogate has narrowed—our job is no longer to speculate but to build instruments that measure what advanced systems are becoming.
Related event: AI Safety Debate: Could Recursive Self-Improvement Spawn Self-Preservation(4 posts)→
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