Vitalik Buterin: Slowing Hyperscale Compute Expansion Could Do More Good Than Harm

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said he disagrees with the strongly emotional reactions to the anti-data-center movement that emerged this week. According to Foresight News, Buterin argued that algorithmic advances could allow existing data centers to achieve in about four years, possibly sooner, capabilities that would otherwise require more and larger data centers over the next two years. He said that even if the movement were highly successful, the outcome would not be catastrophic. Buterin said the world needs as much time as possible to strengthen defenses against known cybersecurity problems and emerging risks, including biological threats. He added that scientific applications face constraints beyond AI, so slowing AI development by a year would have a much smaller effect on scientific progress. He said slowing the hyperscale expansion of computing capacity therefore appears to offer more benefits than costs, a conclusion that does not depend on the disputed view that catastrophe is inevitable.