Vitalik Buterin on Slow down AI development

Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum cofounder; technologist

I don't agree with the strong emotional reaction against the anti-data-center movements that I've seen this week. As I see it, algorithmic progress means that whatever you would be able to do with more and bigger data centers in 2 years, you will be able to do with the data centers we have today in 4 years - probably sooner. So nothing remotely apocalyptically bad will happen from even extreme levels of success by anti-data-center people. Meanwhile we need all the time we can get to better harden the world against both already-visible cybersecurity issues and any bio and other risks soon to come.

AI Verified (Nov 8, 2026)

Source:

Vitalik Buterin, post on X, November 8, 2026. The official @VitalikButerin post says a one-year slowdown in AI development would slow scientific progress by much less than one year and concludes that slowing massive compute expansion seems net positive. Contemporary reports reproduce the post.

41min ago

Policy proposals and claims

Slow down AI development

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AI Verified The quote explicitly addresses a one-year slowdown in AI development and judges the associated slowdown in massive compute expansion net positive; it clearly supports slowing AI development. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 41min ago

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AI Verified Correct answer is for: Buterin says that slowing AI development for a year has a much smaller scientific cost and calls the compute-expansion slowdown net positive. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 41min ago

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AI Verified Verified against Buterin’s official Nov. 8, 2026 X post (@VitalikButerin, status 2119377918875079163); the stored wording is corroborated by same-day reports of that post. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 41min ago

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Vitalik Buterin abstains

We should adopt AI 2040 Plan A

But my problem is that I feel great uncertainty and have no idea which of the two worlds (or some other third thing) we’re living in?

AI Verified source (Jul 11, 2026)

added 2mo ago

Vitalik Buterin votes For

The U.S. and China should establish Mutually Assured Compute Destruction

The 2040 plan is already much more open source friendly (even mandating it! yay). It also includes “mutually assured compute destruction” ideas which (if they work) effectively give one of 2-5 actors the ability to trigger a global compute winter – a...

more AI Verified source (Jul 11, 2026)

added 3mo ago

Vitalik Buterin votes For

Require human-in-the-loop oversight for agentic AI systems acting in high-stakes domains

The hope is that humans and LLMs fail in distinct ways, and so requiring human + LLM 2-of-2 confirmation to take risky actions (and allowing human override only with much more friction and/or time delay) is much safer than fully relying only on eithe...

more AI Verified source (Apr 2, 2026)

added 6mo ago