22 researchers, including OpenAI's chief scientist, Anthropic's co-founder, and AI 'godfathers' Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, just co-wrote a paper on how AI building AI could set off an "intelligence explosion." Some of the wildest parts: - AI now completes 26% of Anthropic's R&D work with only high-level human oversight, up from 1% in March - Once AI hits expert level, one lab's current computing power could run the equivalent of "at least millions of top human researchers"

Twenty-two researchers have co-authored a paper warning that AI building AI could set off an 'intelligence explosion', and the signatory list reads like the industry's conscience finally filing a group grievance. OpenAI's chief scientist, Anthropic's co-founder, and the 'godfathers' Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio all put their names to it. The safety-versus-pace gap we flagged recently now comes with citations attached. And the paper's distribution strategy, per the article, is a Threads post highlighting 'some of the wildest parts' — which is to say the authors themselves rank the findings by how alarming they look in a feed.

The number to pin to the fridge is this: AI now completes 26% of Anthropic's R&D work 'with only high-level human oversight', up from 1% in March. One quarter — five months, give or take — to move from a rounding error to a material share of the research pipeline. And the phrase doing all the heavy lifting is 'only high-level human oversight', which is exactly what every post-mortem says right before it turns out it wasn't oversight at all. The humans are still in the loop, technically, in the way a lighthouse keeper is in the loop on the shipping forecast. Anthropic, meanwhile, remains extremely careful about everything except the arithmetic.

Then the kicker: once AI reaches expert level, one lab's current computing power could run the equivalent of 'at least millions of top human researchers'. Current computing power. Not hypothetical, not pending a new fab — the silicon already humming in the building, staffed by millions of researchers who need no relocation package, no visa, and hold no opinions about the roadmap. The paper was co-written by 22 humans, a ratio worth savouring while it lasts. Somewhere a finance director has just read that same sentence and felt something he cannot name, and it is not dread.