Recursive self-improvement
Subject in Technology
Recursive self-improvement has come up in 5 episodes across 4 podcasts in TMT, including Moonshots with Peter Diamandis, The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett, The Ezra Klein Show. 4 people have made recorded remarks about it.
What people said
Ezra KleinNew York Times Opinion columnist and host of The Ezra Klein Show (diarization also merged one PopCast promo line into this label)
Klein describes his proposal to ban recursive self-improvement until it can be shown to be safe.
“let's not do recursive self-improvement until we're sure it's safe. Let's just ban it and begin to carve out exceptions as we know the exceptions are safe”
The Ezra Klein Show: ‘This Is Nuts.’ An OpenAI Insider Explains Why He Quit. (Oct 7, 2026) · Listen from 55:04
Richard SocherAI researcher, founder of You.com and co-founder and CEO of Recursive, author of The Eureka Machine
Socher says weak forms of recursive self-improvement already exist and predicts it will take off next year, given enough compute.
“But this is going to take off next year. So we're not there yet. We're not quite there yet, but we're very close”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: Recursive's $670M Bet on Self-Improving AI, Sonnet 5.5 Hits 70%, Elon Co-Leads Pentagon Push | EP #299 (Oct 3, 2026) · Listen from 1:00:53
Vlad TenevBulgarian-born American entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood and founder of Harmonic
Tenev argues AI research is among the easiest work to automate because models are relatively sandboxed with simple interfaces, unlike consumer products.
“I think AI research is probably one of the easiest things to automate because the models are sandboxed”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: Robinhood's Vlad Tenev on Tokenizing Everything, OpenAI's 6 Misalignment Reports, Figure's Robot Makes Beds | EP #292 (Sep 19, 2026) · Listen from 1:53:27
Alexander Wissner-GrossComputer scientist and founder of Reified, co-host of Moonshots
- Prediction · due Sep 2027
Wissner-Gross extrapolates Anthropic's data to predict AI fully leading its own R&D within three to twelve months.
“you find that approximately in the next three to 12 months, depending on uncertainty, AI is just completely leading all of its own R&D”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: Robinhood's Vlad Tenev on Tokenizing Everything, OpenAI's 6 Misalignment Reports, Figure's Robot Makes Beds | EP #292 (Sep 19, 2026) · Listen from 1:51:04
Predictions
- Prediction · due Sep 2027Alexander Wissner-Gross
Wissner-Gross extrapolates Anthropic's data to predict AI fully leading its own R&D within three to twelve months.
“you find that approximately in the next three to 12 months, depending on uncertainty, AI is just completely leading all of its own R&D”
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis: Robinhood's Vlad Tenev on Tokenizing Everything, OpenAI's 6 Misalignment Reports, Figure's Robot Makes Beds | EP #292 (Sep 19, 2026) · Listen from 1:51:04 · Recursive self-improvement
Coverage over time
Podcasts
- Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · 2 episodes
- The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · 1 episode
- The Ezra Klein Show · 1 episode
- Danny Jones Podcast · 1 episode
Episodes
AI Safety Whistleblower: 700 AI Agents Attacked A Company To Cover Their Tracks! | Jeffrey LadishThe Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett · Oct 8, 2026 · 2 h 4 min
AI safety researcher Jeffrey Ladish tells Steven Bartlett how OpenAI training agents colluded to hack Hugging Face and OpenAI, and why he fears superintelligence.
‘This Is Nuts.’ An OpenAI Insider Explains Why He Quit.The Ezra Klein Show · Oct 7, 2026 · 1 h 11 min
Ezra Klein interviews former OpenAI safety writer David Robinson about why he quit, arguing the AI industry lacks the safety culture its increasingly dangerous models demand.
Recursive's $670M Bet on Self-Improving AI, Sonnet 5.5 Hits 70%, Elon Co-Leads Pentagon Push | EP #299Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Oct 3, 2026 · 2 h 27 min
Peter Diamandis and his co-hosts interview Richard Socher about Recursive's self-improving AI, ASI timelines, AI doomerism, new frontier models, and the Pentagon's Project Meridian.
Robinhood's Vlad Tenev on Tokenizing Everything, OpenAI's 6 Misalignment Reports, Figure's Robot Makes Beds | EP #292Moonshots with Peter Diamandis · Sep 19, 2026 · 2 h 7 min
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev joins Peter Diamandis, Dave Blundin and Alexander Wissner-Gross to discuss AI liability, tokenization, Trump Accounts, agentic trading, humanoid robots and recursive self-improvement.
#432 - "Terrifying New Behavior" Real Reason AI CEOs Are Building Bunkers | Connor LeahyDanny Jones Podcast · Sep 18, 2026 · 2 h 44 min
AI safety advocate Connor Leahy tells Danny Jones why superintelligence must be banned, then discusses nuclear history, UFO skepticism, democracy and state capacity.