Vitalik: The anti-data center movement is not necessarily a bad thing; slowing the expansion of computing power can buy more time for humanity.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published a post stating he disagrees with the intense emotional reaction to the anti-data center movement this week. His core reasoning is that algorithmic advances mean tasks requiring larger, more numerous data centers to complete in two years can be finished using existing data centers in four years (or even earlier). Therefore, even if the anti-data center movement achieves extreme success, it will not trigger any doomsday-like catastrophic consequences. Buterin noted that slowing computing power expansion can buy humanity more time to address emerging cybersecurity issues and potential future biosecurity risks. Additionally, scientific applications are constrained by many factors beyond AI, so a one-year slowdown in AI development would lead to a far smaller slowdown in scientific progress than one full year. Overall, a slowdown in large-scale computing power expansion appears to have net benefits, and this assessment does not rely on controversial arguments such as "doomsday theories" or recursive self-improvement (RSI).