Machine Learning Street Talk · Saturday, September 26, 2026
A framework for levels of Recursive Self-Improvement (RSI) in AI is presented, starting with 'Delegation' (level zero), where AI R&D is not strictly better than human. Level one, 'Net Positive', signifies AI self-improvement speed surpassing human R&D. The ultimate goal, 'Ignition' (level two), is when an AI's inner loop can become a better outer loop, potentially leading to overcoming diminishing returns in research.
“The first level is delegation, where you can run recursive self-improvement loop, but it's not strictly better than human doing R&D.”
“Uh, level one is what we called net positive, where you run the self-improvement loop, but the speed of self-improvement is actually faster than human doing R&D to improve the system.”
“And the level two, we call it ignition, where the inner loop found by the outer loop can become a better outer loop.”