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An Alien Mind: Jakub Pachocki Warns Us

Substack · Watch/Read · (gathered 2026-09-10)

  • OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki warns that recursive self-improvement (RSI) and superintelligence are imminent, but current alignment and monitoring techniques are failing, necessitating urgent, coordinated global action.
  • Pachocki emphasizes value alignment (generalizing human values) as the core problem, while noting OpenAI’s primary monitoring tool, Chain of Thought (CoT) monitoring, is “progressively diminishing in effectiveness” due to increasingly complex models.
  • He asserts that no lab is currently prepared to responsibly scale AI at maximum speed, calling for voluntary slowdowns, internationally mandated safety bars, and increased investment in alignment, moving beyond the “AI as tool” framing.