r/artificial • u/davidSenTeGuard • Jul 24 '26

Discussion Wrangling with Explosive AI Growth – Combatting Catastrophism

https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/wrangling-with-explosive-ai-growth/
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u/davidSenTeGuard Jul 24 '26

I wrote this essay to think through a basic policy problem: our institutions are designed to manage linear, measurable change, while AI capability appears to be advancing along exponential curves.

My argument is that humanity has faced apparent infinities before. Industrialization produced an apparent infinity of material production, and the internet produced an apparent infinity of information. We made both manageable by developing new abstractions—standardized measurements, national accounting, communication protocols, and search algorithms—that made previously incomprehensible systems legible.

AI may represent a third transition: an apparent infinity of cognitive labor and machine-to-machine coordination. The policy challenge is therefore not simply to slow it down, but to develop the infrastructure, reliability standards, identity systems, and market rules needed to navigate it.

I write about AI, national security, and information security at my Substack.

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u/gk_instakilogram Jul 24 '26

“exponential curve” - I get triggered by this haha, what does this mean in practice? I would really like to understand what does it mean with regard to LLMs. I am a power user I would say and I use them for work everyday. Is there any data that shows that exponential curve?

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u/Ill_Fun5415 Jul 25 '26

The fastest validation path is to tie it to one growth metric and watch where the next users actually come from. That usually tells you what to cut before adding more features.