The twitterverse is all verklempt with Anthropic’s latest blog. Anthropic@AnthropicAIOur internal data shows Claude is accelerating AI development—a possible path to recursive self-improvement, or AI autonomously building a more capable successor.
It’s happening faster than we thought, and the implications deserve greater attention. anthropic.comWhen AI builds itself4:15 PM · Jun 4, 2026 · 238K Views247 Replies · 422 Reposts · 3.25K LikesThe blog, which shows considerable advances in the ability of their systems to write code, is interesting, and make an argument for slowing down AI research that should be considered. But it should also carry an advisory. Here’s the advisory they forgot to include:AGI is *harder* than “recursive self improvement” [RSI]AGI: machine can do anything human can do, autonomously. That has not achieved]RSI (as used below): AI is a useful coding tool that humans can leverage [achieved]; it’s great at (some) code optimizationsThe results in the blog are about RSI, not AGI.Getting to AGI will require new ideas, not just new code optimizations. So we don’t need to panic yet. To some degree, the new Anthropic blog is a bait and switch: Anthropic is trying to strike terror into everyone’s hearts (“full recursive self-improvement also might increase the risks of humans losing control over AI systems”) but all they have really shown is just faster coding — entirely under human control.A faster coding tool will probably not end the world. §More good news. Terrific news, really.I had written before in an essay called “This one weird trick might cost your retirement fund billions” that the S&P 500 was considering rules changes that would have allowed SpaceX to be included in the S&P 500 faster and with fewer restrictions than ever before, an idea that I thought could prove horrific for retail investors and retirees investing in index funds, given that many (thought not quite all) onlookers find the initial share price to be loopy. To my great joy S&P did NOT change the rules!Sawyer Merritt@SawyerMerrittWow, the S&P Dow Jones Indices has just officially announced that they will NOT be changing their inclusion rules to make it easier for “MegaCap” companies (such as @SpaceX) to be fast-tracked into the S&P 500.
