Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain and top voice in the crypto space warned about the dangers posed by super-intelligent Artificial Intelligence. The Ukrainian crypto founder called for a technical response and a robust defense mechanism to address the challenge.
Buterin’s comments come at a time when discussions around the dangers of potential abuse of AI technology are heightened and championed by top voices in the industry.
In a January 5 blog post, Buterin shared his solution to the potential menace of bad actors leveraging Super-intelligent AI for all manner of illicit activities.
He also sounded a note of urgency for the world to rise to the occasion as Super intelligent AI would officially become a reality in less than 6 years from now.
“It’s looking likely we have three-year timelines until AGI and another three years until superintelligence. And so, if we don’t want the world to be destroyed or otherwise fall into an irreversible trap, we can’t just accelerate the good, we also have to slow down the bad,” Buterin wrote.
This is not the first time Vitalik Buterin has spoken on this issue. In 2023 the Ethereum co-founder stated that AI could cause human extinction if not properly checked.
The Concept of Defensive Acceleration
Vitalik Buterin in his blog post explained the concept of Defensive Acceleration as a building block to creating systems that can mitigate the risk of Super intelligent AI.
He explained that the core idea of D/acc is a decentralized and democratic differential defensive acceleration.
The world needs to Build technologies that shift the offense/defense balance toward defense and do so in a way that does not rely on handing over more power to centralized authorities.
This approach according to Buterin may avoid the risk of global human dictatorship by the top 1% but it doesn’t have an answer to the underlying structural problem.
Humanitarian Activities
Vitalik Buterin has always been an active global citizen often contributing to global discussions and donating to humanitarian causes.
Vitalik Buterin is known for selling portions of his massive Ethereum holdings to fund various humanitarian causes.
Last year he stated that he has not sold Ethereum for personal gains since 2015 as critics created FUD around ethereum when he sold large portions of it last year.
