Scientists map a five-level scale for self-improving AI

Researchers in China outlined a framework for recursive self-improvement (RSI) in AI, ranking systems from Level 1, where humans lead development, to Level 5, where AI improves how it improves itself. The arXiv preprint acknowledges huge compute and oversight costs, while critics call the idea of AI magically building better AI "nonsense."

• The RSI scale ranks AI systems across five levels of self-improvement capability
• Lower levels stay human-led; top levels involve AI making its own "meta-improvements"
• An A-Evolve-Training experiment modestly boosted a 30B-parameter LLM over four rounds
• UCL professor Peter Bentley dismissed magical AI self-improvement as "nonsense"