Tim Rocktäschel co-founds Recursive to automate AI research
Recursive launches as a new company to automate the scientific method beginning with AI research. Co-founder Tim Rocktäschel is Professor of AI at UCL Centre for AI. The startup plans to convert compute into accumulated knowledge through open-ended automated discoveries and to build systems that can safely experiment on self-improvement. Emad publicly congratulated the Recursive team on the launch.
@jeffclune congrats on the launch, @jeffclune !
http://x.com/i/article/2054633656803844096
Today @Recursive_SI emerges from stealth to build self-improving superintelligence.
Founded by @RichardSocher, @_rockt, @jeffclune, @timshi_ai, @tydsh, @CaimingXiong, Alexey Dosovitskiy & @josh_tobin_, @aixventureshq backed them from day one.
The company is building AI that safely improves itself, in an open-ended process of automated scientific discovery.
Read more in the @nytimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/notable-researchers-join-4-billion-effort-to-build-self-improving-ai.html
Here's an article from the NYTimes about the launch https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/recursive-superintelligence-funding-ai.html
http://x.com/i/article/2054589416744812544
and our official post
@j_foerst 🙏
Big news coming out of London -- the AI scientist space keeps heating up with another huge player entering the arena! Congrats to @_rockt and team!
@jeffclune #SquadGoals 🫶
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
So excited to have Sarah support us at @Recursive_SI. She has been following our founder's Open-Endedness research for many years... even before it was cool. I have rarely seen a VC that is that deeply knowledgeable and opinionated (and correct) about future AI trends.
For the past few years, we’ve been thinking about the impact of open endedness on the pursuit of AGI. Through our exploration, we’ve met some of the most talented researchers and engineers automating scientific discovery. When all of our “top people” decided to start a company together, we knew we had to be involved. Coding agents may help implement experiments but the step to building automated research agents is going to be hard; harder than most anticipate. This team can figure it out. And…I always back Josh. You’re stuck with me :)
@Mascobot @timshi_ai @RichardSocher Thank you Marco! :)
Congrats @timshi_ai, @RichardSocher, @_rockt & Team!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
At Recursive, we believe this information barrier can be overcome by fully automating the scientific method, starting with AI research itself.
In his 1964 book Summa Technologiae, Stanisław Lem argued that humanity will hit an “information barrier” — a point where the volume and fragmentation of information exceed humanity’s ability to filter, interpret, and integrate it into a coherent body of knowledge.
In his 1964 book Summa Technologiae, Stanisław Lem argued that humanity will hit an “information barrier” — a point where the volume and fragmentation of information exceed humanity’s ability to filter, interpret, and integrate it into a coherent body of knowledge.

Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@EMostaque @Recursive_SI Thank you Emad 🙏
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats! Looking forward to the breakthroughs 🇬🇧 🚀
@Tim_Dettmers @Recursive_SI Thank you Tim!
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats, Tim! Excited to see what you are building!
🔥🔥🔥
I’ve joined Recursive to build self-improving AI. AI that safely improves itself through an open-ended journey toward superintelligence.
Darwin and Gödel would be proud! 🧫🧪⚗️🚀
I'm particularly delighted to have three former and current members of my UBC lab join @Recursive_SI: the amazing Cong Lu @cong_ml, Jenny Zhang @jennyzhangzt, and Shengran @shengranhu. 🚀✨🧪⚗️💡
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats, Tim! Excited to see what you are building!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@sarahcat21 Thank you for your kind words and all your support, Sarah!! @sarahcat21
For the past few years, we’ve been thinking about the impact of open endedness on the pursuit of AGI. Through our exploration, we’ve met some of the most talented researchers and engineers automating scientific discovery. When all of our “top people” decided to start a company together, we knew we had to be involved. Coding agents may help implement experiments but the step to building automated research agents is going to be hard; harder than most anticipate. This team can figure it out. And…I always back Josh. You’re stuck with me :)
@togelius @_rockt @RichardSocher A huge thank you, Julian! 🙏 ✨ 🧪⚗️💡📊 🚀
Congratulations to @jeffclune @_rockt @RichardSocher and the rest of the team! Impressive start, and good luck on the journey!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing).
Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI

I'm particularly delighted to have three former and current members of my UBC lab join @Recursive_SI: the amazing Cong Lu @cong_ml, Jenny Zhang @jennyzhangzt, and Shengran @shengranhu. 🚀✨🧪⚗️💡
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
NYT Article on Recursive https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/notable-researchers-join-4-billion-effort-to-build-self-improving-ai.html?searchResultPosition=1
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
When I first wanted to get into AI, my father bought me the leading textbook on AI. I've since taught it many times in my university classes. It is an amazing full circle moment to have its co-author the great Peter Norvig join us at Recursive. Here's a screenshot from the New York Times article by @CadeMetz

Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@kenneth0stanley Thanks Ken! 🙏 ✨ 🧪⚗️💡📊 🚀
@jeffclune Congrats to the new team, this company will be awesome!
also delighted to be joined by my co-first ever PhD student @anh_ng8 !!! 🙏 ✨ 🧪⚗️💡📊 🚀
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
Always fun to make your own X news headlines

Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@hardmaru Thank you David! I found your journey inspiring.
@jeffclune congrats on the launch, @jeffclune !
Big news coming out of London -- the AI scientist space keeps heating up with another huge player entering the arena! Congrats to @_rockt and team!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@RichardSocher Woah! Stellar team. Congratulations, Richard!
http://x.com/i/article/2054589416744812544
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats! Looking forward to the breakthroughs 🇬🇧 🚀
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@tydsh Congrats Yuandong!
Today we launch Recursive. We are building AI that discovers knowledge automatically and improves itself recursively, an open-ended process that will fundamentally change how science and technology advance. Our 25 top researchers and engineers in San Francisco and London bring diverse expertise spanning agentic AI scientists, architecture and algorithm design, world models, optimization, and interpretability, united by a shared conviction that this is the most important problem we could be working on today. If you are interested in joining, please send your resume to talent@recursive.com. Follow us at @Recursive_SI!
Great to work together along the journey @_rockt!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
Today we launch Recursive.
We are building AI that discovers knowledge automatically and improves itself recursively, an open-ended process that will fundamentally change how science and technology advance.
Our 25 top researchers and engineers in San Francisco and London bring diverse expertise spanning agentic AI scientists, architecture and algorithm design, world models, optimization, and interpretability, united by a shared conviction that this is the most important problem we could be working on today.
If you are interested in joining, please send your resume to talent@recursive.com. Follow us at @Recursive_SI!
NYT Article on @Recursive_SI!
@tydsh This is exciting Congrats
Today we launch Recursive. We are building AI that discovers knowledge automatically and improves itself recursively, an open-ended process that will fundamentally change how science and technology advance. Our 25 top researchers and engineers in San Francisco and London bring diverse expertise spanning agentic AI scientists, architecture and algorithm design, world models, optimization, and interpretability, united by a shared conviction that this is the most important problem we could be working on today. If you are interested in joining, please send your resume to talent@recursive.com. Follow us at @Recursive_SI!
@jeffclune @braneloop Congrats!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@_rockt @Recursive_SI @sarahcat21 is literally *the best*, congrats to everyone at the Recursive team! 🥳🎉
So excited to have Sarah support us at @Recursive_SI. She has been following our founder's Open-Endedness research for many years... even before it was cool. I have rarely seen a VC that is that deeply knowledgeable and opinionated (and correct) about future AI trends.
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@RichardSocher Massive congrats folks! Onwards!
http://x.com/i/article/2054589416744812544
Nice.
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
Congratulations to my friends at Recursive, a major new force in open-ended AI! And yet another signal that open-endedness is increasingly the north star for the future of the field!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@jeffclune Congrats to the new team, this company will be awesome!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@_rockt @Tim_Dettmers @Recursive_SI Very exciting, congrats Tim & team!!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@jeffclune Congrats Jeff, and best of luck!!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@tydsh Congrats Yuandong!!
Today we launch Recursive. We are building AI that discovers knowledge automatically and improves itself recursively, an open-ended process that will fundamentally change how science and technology advance. Our 25 top researchers and engineers in San Francisco and London bring diverse expertise spanning agentic AI scientists, architecture and algorithm design, world models, optimization, and interpretability, united by a shared conviction that this is the most important problem we could be working on today. If you are interested in joining, please send your resume to talent@recursive.com. Follow us at @Recursive_SI!
@RichardSocher Congrats!!
http://x.com/i/article/2054589416744812544
@CaimingXiong @Recursive_SI Congrats Caiming, excited about what you'll be building!
Today, we’re excited to launch Recursive (@recursive_si): an exceptional team across London and San Francisco, building AI systems that can safely improve their own capabilities over time.
@josh_tobin_ @Recursive_SI Wow! Big fan of your work as always, Josh. Looking forward to seeing more of the cool stuff you all are working on. Congrats!
Today we’re launching Recursive (@Recursive_SI) We’re building AI that automates science, starting with the science of how to improve itself. I’ve spent a lot of time building AI products and tools for AI teams. One thing that has always stood out is how much progress depends on the experimental loop: deciding what to try, implementing it, running it, understanding what happened, and repeating. Recursive is automating that loop, safely and at scale. Excited to work on this with an incredible team across SF and London.
Congratulations to @jeffclune @_rockt @RichardSocher and the rest of the team! Impressive start, and good luck on the journey!
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
Congrats @timshi_ai, @RichardSocher, @_rockt & Team!
@jeffclune @jennyzhangzt Congrats @jeffclune !
Thrilled to share that we founded Recursive to create AI that safely conducts experiments on how to improve itself in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discovery. As I wrote in my 2019 AI-generating algorithms paper, this will likely be the fastest path to superintelligence. Our work since has shown the power of this approach. Excited to scale up and improve upon ideas like the Darwin Gödel Machine, HyperAgents, ADAS, OMNI, ALMA, The AI Scientist, PromptBreeder, Rainbow Teaming, Automated Capability Discovery, and other work on open-ended and AI-generating algorithms. We’ve assembled a dream team of researchers and significant resources to pursue this vision. My amazing co-founders are pictured here, and we have an all-star team of founding members (we’re over 25 and growing). Please join us if you are interested! Follow our progress @Recursive_SI
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Fantastic, congrats @_rockt @RichardSocher and the whole team!
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@_rockt @Recursive_SI Congrats Tim and team 🚀🚀
Excited to co-found Recursive (@recursive_si) with an exceptional team in London and SF to create AI that experiments on how to safely improve itself, turning compute into knowledge that accumulates in an open-ended process of endless, automated scientific discoveries.
@sarahcat21 Thanks Sarah, so glad to have you involved!
For the past few years, we’ve been thinking about the impact of open endedness on the pursuit of AGI. Through our exploration, we’ve met some of the most talented researchers and engineers automating scientific discovery. When all of our “top people” decided to start a company together, we knew we had to be involved. Coding agents may help implement experiments but the step to building automated research agents is going to be hard; harder than most anticipate. This team can figure it out. And…I always back Josh. You’re stuck with me :)
Today we’re launching Recursive (@Recursive_SI)
We’re building AI that automates science, starting with the science of how to improve itself.
I’ve spent a lot of time building AI products and tools for AI teams. One thing that has always stood out is how much progress depends on the experimental loop: deciding what to try, implementing it, running it, understanding what happened, and repeating.
Recursive is automating that loop, safely and at scale.
Excited to work on this with an incredible team across SF and London.
Check out our post for more info on what we're up to and our raise:
here's what the NYT wrote about us: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/recursive-superintelligence-funding-ai.html
Check out our post for more info on what we're up to and our raise:
@omarsar0 @Recursive_SI thanks!
@josh_tobin_ @Recursive_SI Wow! Big fan of your work as always, Josh. Looking forward to seeing more of the cool stuff you all are working on. Congrats!
@tydsh @szxiangjn Congratulations!
Today we launch Recursive. We are building AI that discovers knowledge automatically and improves itself recursively, an open-ended process that will fundamentally change how science and technology advance. Our 25 top researchers and engineers in San Francisco and London bring diverse expertise spanning agentic AI scientists, architecture and algorithm design, world models, optimization, and interpretability, united by a shared conviction that this is the most important problem we could be working on today. If you are interested in joining, please send your resume to talent@recursive.com. Follow us at @Recursive_SI!
For the past few years, we’ve been thinking about the impact of open endedness on the pursuit of AGI. Through our exploration, we’ve met some of the most talented researchers and engineers automating scientific discovery. When all of our “top people” decided to start a company together, we knew we had to be involved.
Coding agents may help implement experiments but the step to building automated research agents is going to be hard; harder than most anticipate. This team can figure it out.
And…I always back Josh. You’re stuck with me :)
Today we’re launching Recursive (@Recursive_SI) We’re building AI that automates science, starting with the science of how to improve itself. I’ve spent a lot of time building AI products and tools for AI teams. One thing that has always stood out is how much progress depends on the experimental loop: deciding what to try, implementing it, running it, understanding what happened, and repeating. Recursive is automating that loop, safely and at scale. Excited to work on this with an incredible team across SF and London.
I think the key questions are:
- Is it better if powerful AI is made sooner or later? (It's will happen eventually.) - What's the best way to make powerful AI go better? The best levers may not be shifting things sooner or later.
This essay doesn't answer these questions. 1/
http://x.com/i/article/2054633656803844096
I currently think slowing down AI development at the right time reduces absolute existential risk (e.g. extinction) by >>1% per year of delay (for the first 3-10 years) which makes this clearly worth it. Slowing down now is more complex, but seems probably good at the margin. 2/
I think the key questions are: - Is it better if powerful AI is made sooner or later? (It's will happen eventually.) - What's the best way to make powerful AI go better? The best levers may not be shifting things sooner or later. This essay doesn't answer these questions. 1/
I think there are much more effective ways to make powerful AI go well than to contribute to advancing AI capabilities even if it was better if powerful AI came sooner. There are many other axes! E.g., you can work on technical safety/alignment, work on governance/advocacy. 3/
I currently think slowing down AI development at the right time reduces absolute existential risk (e.g. extinction) by >>1% per year of delay (for the first 3-10 years) which makes this clearly worth it. Slowing down now is more complex, but seems probably good at the margin. 2/
I think an argument for generally working on AI capabilities has to argue not just that powerful AI will be good, but that making it faster at the margin is good and that making it happen faster is among the best things to work on. 4/
I think there are much more effective ways to make powerful AI go well than to contribute to advancing AI capabilities even if it was better if powerful AI came sooner. There are many other axes! E.g., you can work on technical safety/alignment, work on governance/advocacy. 3/
Also, @jeffclune I'd be down to chat about any of this and what I think is good to do if you're interested. Or what I think Recursive Superintelligence should do.
I think an argument for generally working on AI capabilities has to argue not just that powerful AI will be good, but that making it faster at the margin is good and that making it happen faster is among the best things to work on. 4/
The Alpha Alumni ? : )
Today, we’re excited to launch Recursive (@recursive_si): an exceptional team across London and San Francisco, building AI systems that can safely improve their own capabilities over time.
Excited to work with cofounders Richard Socher (@RichardSocher), Tim Rocktaeschel (@_rockt ), Josh Tobin (@josh_tobin_), @CaimingXiong, @jeffclune, Yuandong Tian (@tydsh) and Alexey Dosovitskiy
And amazing authors from the AI Scientist paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10265-5, HyperAgents and Darwin Gödel Machine. @jeffclune @cong_ml @jennyzhangzt @shengranhu

Today we have come out of stealth @Recursive_SI 🥷
Excited to build with an incredible team in London and SF joining many threads I've been lucky to work on: AI Scientists, agentic self-improvement and open-endedness towards systems that can perform research on themselves! 🧑🔬