“There is no subject now but artificial intelligence. Nothing else is as crucial, nothing carries dangers so imminent or implications so great for the human future.” This is how Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and one of the most even-handed commentators I know, begins her latest article.
She closes it: “The stakes are high, couldn’t be higher.”
Artificial intelligence has been in the news for years. Why all the fervor in recent days?
‘America’s Great AI Freakout’
On Sept. 9, AI engineer Jacob Coxon posted on X: “I resigned from Anthropic today.” He warned that AI developers “are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” His post sparked headlines across the week and has generated more than 170 million views as of this morning. It is notable that Coxon gave up equity in the company when he resigned, demonstrating the urgency of the crisis in his view.
Thus began what the Wall Street Journal calls “America’s Great AI Freakout.”
At the heart of the concern is a capacity known as “recursive self-improvement,” or RSI. This refers to a stage when AI models are able to write their own programs and drive their own development.
If they reach this stage, one expert said, this could lead to “catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term.”
Read more.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jim Denison and originally published by Denison Forum.
