Buterin vs. AI "World Domination": A Call for Realism and Decentralization
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin once again raises a critical question that concerns the entire tech community: how ready is humanity for the emergence of artificial superintelligence (ASI), and, most importantly, who will control it? His latest statements are not just criticism, but a deep analysis of the deadlock that discussions about the future of AI have reached.
The trigger for his statement was the debate around the "AI 2040" scenario, which suggests that superintelligence will emerge almost inevitably, regardless of our efforts. According to Buterin, both supporters and critics of this scenario are "locked into mutually incompatible worldviews." Some naively believe in a smooth transition, others that humanity can coordinate and stop development. Buterin himself admits he does not know which of these worlds we live in, and this is a key point of uncertainty.
The Danger of Power Concentration
The Ethereum creator is particularly alarmed by the rhetoric of some AI giants. He directly states that he is wary of the mindset where "open source is bad, and a good outcome is when our guys get controlling world domination." Buterin rightly notes that such statements should raise all political "red flags" at once. For him, superintelligence is primarily a colossal risk of power concentration.
That is why Buterin consistently promotes the concept of d/acc — decentralized defensive acceleration. This platform includes the development of formal verification, cryptography, secure open hardware, and public epistemology. The value of these areas is that they are useful in any development scenario, unlike attempts to guess who will end up in charge.
Seeking Compromise: Triggers Instead of War
Buterin's key idea is to find a deal acceptable to both sides. He proposes pre-agreeing on a set of triggers signaling that "something serious is happening": superpandemics, unemployment above 25%, or the emergence of autonomous weapons. If a sufficient number of such triggers are activated, the parties commit to seriously considering a slowdown or pause in development. Critics will accept this, expecting the triggers not to fire, while the concerned will expect the opposite.
Cryptalist Analytical Commentary: Buterin's proposal is not just a philosophical debate, but a pragmatic plan that could serve as a basis for real regulation. If tech giant leaders, instead of rhetoric about "world domination," restructured their platforms to seek such mutually beneficial deals as Vitalik suggests, we would avoid many risks. For now, the market is watching the AI arms race, and it is decentralized technologies like Ethereum that could become the only tool for creating checks and balances in this new reality.