AI could become ‘a danger to people’: What is ‘Recursive Self-improvement’ OpenAI warned about in new post

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI called on Monday for the United States to lead an international effort to develop global technical standards for frontier AI, including recursive self-improvement (RSI), where systems can autonomously enhance their own capabilities.

The San Francisco-based AI lab has, however, said that recursive self-improvement should not be pursued “unless and until it can be done safely.”

"The United States is well positioned to lead because its AI industry is at the technical frontier, and it still stands in a privileged global network position in critical areas such as finance, trade, defense, technology, and information systems," OpenAI said in a blog post.

What is recursive self-improvement?

Recursive self-improvement or RSI is a technique where software begins to teach itself and improve autonomously, which critics fear could have catastrophic outcomes if humans are not able to intervene.

RSI is a technique in which models identify their own limitations, design experiments, and synthesise data to drive a cycle of self-evolution. In RSI, AI models find ways to improve themselves and build their successors.

According to the Associated Press, leading AI companies have different definitions for recursive self-improvement. Some define it as when there is any feedback from AI on model improvement, while others define it as AI working toward that goal fully autonomously.

The risks

The uncertainty over where it all could lead is at the heart of growing fears about AI evading human control, and possible threats to humanity, which led several AI moguls to join last weekend in a call to slow down the technology's pace of growth.

In a blog post published as world leaders gather at the United Nations, OpenAI argued, "Fully autonomous RSI is not happening today, and we should not pursue it unless and until it can be done safely."

It warned, "From here, AI could become more dangerous, less aligned, and, on the whole, a danger to people."