Ramez Naam pens skeptic's essay on recursive self-improvement and the intelligence explosion
chrisalbon · x · 2026-10-19
Futurist Ramez Naam published a long essay, "Where's the 'intelligence explosion'?", offering a skeptic's take on Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI). Chris Albon recommended it, saying he read it twice while taking notes. Context: Noam Brown has said RSI / AI doing AI research is OpenAI's top priority by a wide margin, and fast-takeoff/FOOM beliefs are widespread in the industry. Naam — a futurist who early and correctly predicted the solar and battery revolutions — systematically challenges the narrative that AI improving itself must lead to a capability explosion and Singularity.
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