The a16z Show · Saturday, September 12, 2026
The discussion touches on the idea that AI development is currently in a 'slow takeoff' scenario, evidenced by unexpected capabilities discovered in models. This contrasts with fears of a rapid, uncontrollable AI advancement, suggesting that human observation and iteration are keeping pace with AI progress.
“To me feels like, there's always been this question of are we on the fast takeoff scenario or the slow takeoff scenario? And it feels very much so that we are on the slow takeoff scenario because everyone of these milestones, it's like, holy shit, it hacked. We had no idea it was doing this. But like, we're catching it, we're watching it, we're observing it, we're iterating, evolving.”
“That's right. Like the line of reasoning for that case is always, everything up until now, then something happens that no one can quite articulate, and then fast takeoff. So I don't believe that that's going to happen.”