Vitalik Buterin: Being open to "anti-data center populism" may help slow down the AGI process.

In an article published on the X platform, Vitalik Buterin expressed a relatively open attitude towards so-called "anti-data-center populism," believing that under the current technological path, restricting the supply of industrial-grade hardware computing power may be one of the "most pragmatic and least dystopian" ways to delay the AGI timeline. Based on discussions with relevant researchers, reducing the availability of large-scale computing infrastructure may help extend the AGI development cycle, and if the social forces driving this process initially stem from opposition to data center expansion, "that seems plausible." However, he also emphasized that taking action only against data centers located in densely populated areas is insufficient to substantially change the AGI timeline. He estimated that under a "static world model," a 10 to 100-fold reduction in computing power is feasible; compared to a hypothetical scenario of continuous advancements in future chip design, the reduction could even reach 100 to 10,000 times, and such a scale "would have a real impact." Despite the complexity of the path, any major adjustment requires a "first step."