AI labs rely on autocatalytic progress, not recursive self-improvement
Anish Acharya · Why companies are becoming a series of loops | Anish Acharya (a16z) · Sep 6, 2026 · at 5:02
Anish Acharya, General Partner at a16z, discusses why fears of an insurmountable runaway AI monopoly are technically unfounded.
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“But if you ask the most sophisticated individuals at the labs, it's not actually RSI that's occurring, which could lead to some sort of runaway winner because they were an epsilon ahead of the others. It's auto catalytic effects, which just means you're using the new technology to improve your process, but it's not truly recursive.”
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