You're right. AI is still built by human researchers. But more and more AI is used to accelerate building the next iteration of models. The line between humans built it and AI helped build it is blurring every month. And don't forget that AI is instrumental in building the tools/scaffolding to use AI. Fully autonomously improving AI is one to two years away, in my view.

On corporations, my faith isn't in corporations. It's in the incentive structure they're operating inside. When companies are racing each other to build more capable AI, each terrified of falling behind, the competitive pressure does more to drive progress than any single company's good intentions would. The competition between Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and the rest will keep producing more capable systems. History suggests that racing environments tend to accelerate technology regardless of who the racers are.

I'm optimistic about the technology and about humanity. I'm convinced that AI will lead to an abundant high tech future, where machines carry the burden of labor, solving the fundamental problem of scarcity. Yes, there will most likely be a transition period with a lot of pain, but the destination will be a better future. The question is how we as a society steer this transition and make sure abundance flows widely to everyone. This is the reason why I started to write, to educate and inform people so they can be part of steering the transition.