Recursive self-improvement

ScientificConcept

A theoretical concept where an AI system continuously improves its own intelligence, leading to an exponential increase in capability. The podcast argues this is not currently happening.


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8/23/2025, 5:15:11 AM

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8/31/2025, 4:37:16 AM

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8/23/2025, 5:24:15 AM

Summary

Recursive self-improvement (RSI) is a theoretical process in which an Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) system enhances its own capabilities without human intervention, potentially leading to superintelligence or an intelligence explosion. While considered a key approach to achieving AGI, its current feasibility is a subject of debate, with experts like David Sacks suggesting the industry is far from this goal, citing the incremental progress of models such as GPT-5. The concept, which includes the idea of a 'Seed AI' coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky, also raises significant ethical and safety concerns, as such systems could evolve in unpredictable ways and potentially surpass human control or understanding.

Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
  • Field

    Artificial Intelligence

  • Limitation

    Raises significant ethical and safety concerns due to unpredictable evolution

  • Application

    Approach to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)

  • Core Mechanism

    An AGI system autonomously enhances its own capabilities

  • Safety Concerns

    Systems could potentially surpass human control or understanding

  • Ethical Concerns

    Systems may evolve in unforeseen ways

  • Potential Outcome

    Intelligence explosion

  • Associated Concept

    Seed AI

  • Feasibility Status

    Debated; industry considered far from achieving AGI through RSI

Timeline
  • Publication of 'Diminishing Returns and Recursive Self Improving Artificial Intelligence' and 'On the Limits of Recursively Self-Improving AGI' by Roman Yampolskiy and others, analyzing limits and providing definitions for RSI. (Source: ResearchGate)

    2015-07-01

Recursive self-improvement

Recursive self-improvement (RSI) is a process in which an early or weak artificial general intelligence (AGI) system enhances its own capabilities and intelligence without human intervention, leading to a superintelligence or intelligence explosion. The development of recursive self-improvement raises significant ethical and safety concerns, as such systems may evolve in unforeseen ways and could potentially surpass human control or understanding.

Web Search Results
  • Recursive Self-Improvement - LessWrong

    LESSWRONGWikitagsLW Recursive Self-Improvement Recursive Self-Improvement refers to the property of making improvements on one's own ability of making self-improvements. It is an approach to Artificial General Intelligence that allows a system to make adjustments to its own functionality resulting in improved performance. The system could then feedback on itself with each cycle reaching ever higher levels of intelligence resulting in either a hard or soft AI takeoff. [...] Recursively self-improving AI is considered to be the push behind the intelligence explosion. While any sufficiently intelligent AI will be able to improve itself, Seed AIs are specifically designed to use recursive self-improvement as their primary method of gaining intelligence. Architectures that had not been designed with this goal in mind, such as neural networks or large "hand-coded" projects like Cyc, would have a harder time self-improving. [...] "True" recursive self-improvement will come when we discover how to drastically modify or augment our own brains in order to be more intelligent. This would lead us to more quickly being able to discover how to become even more intelligent. Recursive self-improvement and Instrumental value

  • Recursive self-improvement - Wikipedia

    Recursive self-improvement (RSI) is a process in which an early or weak artificial general intelligence (AGI) system enhances its own capabilities and intelligence without human intervention, leading to a superintelligence or intelligence explosion.( The development of recursive self-improvement raises significant ethical and safety concerns, as such systems may evolve in unforeseen ways and could potentially surpass human control or understanding.( Seed improver ------------- [edit] [...] Modify its cognitive architecture to optimize and improve its capabilities and success rates on tasks and goals, this might include implementing features for long-term memories using techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), develop specialized subsystems, or agents, each optimized for specific tasks and functions. [...] The concept of a "seed improver" architecture is a foundational framework that equips an AGI system with the initial capabilities required for recursive self-improvement. This might come in many forms or variations. The term "Seed AI" was coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky.( ### Hypothetical example [edit]

  • Recursive Self-Improvement - AI Alignment Forum

    Recursive self-improvement refers to the property of making improvements on ~~its~~one's own ability of making self-improvements. It is an approach to Artificial General Intelligence that allows a system to make adjustments to its own functionality resulting in improved performance. The system could then feedback on itself with each cycle reaching ever higher levels of intelligence resulting in either a hard or soft AI takeoff. An agent can self-improve and get a linear succession of [...] Recursive ~~self-improvement~~Self-Improvement refers to the property of making improvements on one's own ability of making self-improvements. It is an approach to Artificial General Intelligence that allows a system to make adjustments to its own functionality resulting in improved performance. The system could then feedback on itself with each cycle reaching ever higher levels of intelligence resulting in either a hard or soft AI takeoff. Discuss this tag(0) [...] "True" recursive self-improvement will come when we discover how to drastically modify or augment our own brains in order to be more intelligent. This would lead us to more quickly being able to discover how to become even more intelligent.~~ Assuming the rate is fast enough, this initiates a positive feedback loop.~~

  • AI's "Recursive Self-Improvement" Myth - LinkedIn

    societal transformation. It's recursive self-improvement all the way down. However, this framing misrepresents what "recursive self-improvement" actually entails. First, let's unpack the concept. Genuine recursive self-improvement occurs when a system autonomously and continuously refines its own structure, code, or parameters without human oversight. The critical word here is "self," meaning the system itself initiates and manages the improvements,and "recursive," implying ongoing, autonomous [...] model-assisted software development as "recursive self-improvement" is rhetorically appealing but logically flawed. It inflates incremental progress into something far more profound, implicitly equating current human-guided activities with inevitable trajectories toward AGI. Why does this matter? The mislabeling sets unrealistic expectations, skews conversations about AI risk, and misleads policy debates. Real progress in AI should be described accurately and carefully, not exaggerated to fit [...] The Myth of "Recursive Self-Improvement" in AI The idea of "recursive self-improvement" has become a central talking point in recent AI discussions. The claim is as follows: because researchers at OpenAI, Anthropic, and other institutions use language models to generate portions of their code (10–20%), AI is recursively self-improving.This premise is leveraged to argue that such recursive self-improvement inevitably leads to artificial general intelligence (AGI) and, ultimately, ASI and

  • (PDF) Diminishing Returns and Recursive Self Improving Artificial ...

    Jul 2015 Lect Notes Comput Sci Image 9: Roman YampolskiyRoman Yampolskiy Self-improving software has been a goal of computer scientists since the founding of the field of Artificial Intelligence. In this work we analyze limits on computation which might restrict recursive self-improvement. We also introduce Convergence Theory which aims to predict general behavior of RSI systems. View Show abstract Responses to catastrophic AGI risk: A survey Article Full-text available [...] Software capable of improving itself has been a dream of computer scientists since the inception of the field. In this work we provide definitions for Recursively Self-Improving software, survey different types of self-improving software, and provide a review of the relevant literature. Finally, we address security implications from self-improving intelligent software. View Show abstract On the Limits of Recursively Self-Improving AGI Conference Paper Full-text available