Vitalik: Open to AI Slowdown or Pause, Supports d/acc Platform

Odaily Planet Daily News Vitalik stated in a post on the X platform that AI 2040 and its critics hold incompatible worldviews regarding the speed and importance of AI progress. AI 2040 believes that, unless strong measures are taken to completely prevent it, various scenarios will lead to some form of superintelligence by 2040; critics argue that AI 2040 underestimates human coordination capabilities and threatens freedom, but do not view ASI itself as a centralization of power risk. Vitalik indicated that if he were convinced that AI in its current form is merely ordinary technology, he would lean closer to the critics' camp; if he were certain that superintelligence would arrive by default in 2030, he would align more with the AI 2040 camp. He stated that due to significant uncertainty, he remains open to a slowdown or pause, while also feeling uncomfortable with the stance advocated by some large AI companies and intellectuals that "open source is unfavorable, and the ideal outcome is one side holding global control and dominance." Vitalik said that a key reason he supports the d/acc platform is that areas such as formal verification, cryptography, secure and open hardware, pandemic resilience, defensive biotechnology, food and basic resource security, public epistemic systems, and non-centralized physical security are worth advancing under both worldviews. He also noted that the 2040 plan has become more supportive of open source and incorporates the concept of "mutually assured compute destruction," which represents an improvement over allowing a few participants to selectively strip the rights of those they deem undesirable. Vitalik stated that there is no way to avoid trade-offs on whether to slow down or pause; one can pre-set trigger conditions and, when sufficient conditions are met within a specific timeframe, maintain a more open attitude toward a slowdown or pause. He also mentioned that if he were Elon Musk or Zuck, he would more aggressively transform Twitter into a platform that helps identify and facilitate such large win-win agreements, allowing more people to participate in the discussion, but he believes this might also be naive. Currently, he sees no non-naive ASI transition response plan, so he tends to be somewhat lenient toward those who are giving it a try.