Terence Tao urges slowing AI as engineers relive the 2024 denial-to-acceptance arc
mallow610 · x · 2026-09-21
Mathematician Terence Tao called to "slow down AI. The pace is insane, and there's no reason to be this fast — no reason at all," arguing these are extremely nonlinear dynamics with unknowable consequences.
The poster draws a parallel to software engineers' 2024 arc: from "no way a language model can code, it can't reason and the context window is only 4k" to total disbelief — the five stages of grief, with most still somewhere in the process because humans are terrible at understanding exponentials. The same script now plays with Waymo: SF Uber drivers say "there's no reason Waymo should deploy this fast." Progress is deeply uncomfortable, will keep accelerating, and every other field will have this realization sooner or later.
Related event: Terence Tao Calls to Slow Down AI: The Pace Is Insane and Unnecessary(13 posts)→
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