For some “AI accelerationists,” the goal is superhuman intelligence ASAP, with few guardrails
For some “AI accelerationists,” the goal is superhuman intelligence ASAP, with few guardrails
Amid all the stuff Elon Musk’s been up to in Washington, he found time to make a bid to buy OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. The offer was just under $100 billion. CEO Sam Altman not so politely declined. “I think he is probably just trying to slow us down,” Altman said.
It can feel, in these early days of 2025, like nothing can slow down artificial intelligence. And there’s a group of “techno-optimists” in Silicon Valley who are pushing harder on the gas pedal. They’re called AI accelerationists.
At parties and conferences and pretty much anywhere around the San Francisco Bay Area, AI accelerationists are there.
“I think you cannot avoid it in Silicon Valley,” said Songyee Yoon, managing partner at Principal Venture Partners, which invests in AI companies. There are degrees of accelerationism, she said, and most people in tech want AI to get better in one way or another.
But for louder and prouder accelerationists, the working definition is something along the lines of, let’s create superhuman intelligence as quickly as possible.
“Anything that slows down the adoption of the technology is viewed as roadblock, and negative,” Yoon said.
That’s especially true of regulations and guardrails, which AI accelerationists view as unnecessary and overly cautious.
“One thing that’s been really interesting to see in the accelerationist discourse is there’s a notion that AI can’t cause large-scale harm,” said Hamza Chaudhry, AI and national security lead at the Future of Life Institute.
It’s not just tech bros on X posting accelerationist memes. Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and major donor to President Donald Trump, counts himself as an accelerationist.
And though Chaudhry said it’s too early to tell what Trump will do on AI, the technology is getting better every day.
“We’re, unfortunately, much closer to getting to advanced AI than knowing how to control it or to make it work for folks,” he said.
This week in Paris, billionaires and policymakers gathered for an AI summit, similar to one held in London a couple of years ago. But Chaudhry noticed one important difference in the conference declaration: “The complete absence of any language on large-scale risk of AI systems.”
He said that’s not necessarily a sign of accelerationists winning, but things are shifting.
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