Vitalik's AI Declaration: Focus on Human Enhancement, Not Creating "Skynet"

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed his views publicly, stating that any new AI laboratories should establish binding charters focused on developing “human enhancement tools” rather than building autonomous systems that operate beyond 1 minute of decision-making time. His call to “not build Skynet, but to build the mech suit of thought” directly addresses the deep contradiction in current AI development directions: the pursuit of fully autonomous superintelligence versus human-centric augmented intelligence.

Core Philosophy: Vitalik’s “One-Minute Autonomy” Principle

Vitalik Buterin’s discourse on artificial intelligence centers on a firm commitment to human agency. He explicitly opposes the mainstream AI labs’ pursuit of long-term, fully autonomous research directions. He proposes that any emerging AI project aimed at “serving humanity” should adopt a fundamental restriction: limit the system’s autonomous decision-making to within 1 minute. This seemingly specific time constraint is rooted in profound philosophical considerations. One minute of autonomy is enough for AI to assist humans in completing complex calculations, translating text, or analyzing data.

However, this is insufficient for AI to operate outside human supervision, such as making long-term plans, forming independent intentions, or executing actions beyond immediate human comprehension. Vitalik worries that currently, the vast majority of resources and attention are directed toward “max autonomy” superintelligent projects, while underinvesting in the field of “augmented intelligence” that can directly expand individual human capabilities.

Practical Vision: Human Augmentation AI in Practice and Outlook

“Human augmentation” is not a fantasy but a rapidly developing interdisciplinary field worldwide. It combines artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, and extended reality to directly enhance human cognition, perception, and physical abilities.

The “International Conference on Human Enhancement” held in March 2025 at MBZUAI University in the UAE showcased the broad prospects of this field. Topics included enhancing physical interaction through AR/VR, developing bionic and assistive systems, and leveraging AI for cognitive and perceptual enhancement. Core projects in this domain, such as “GazeLLM,” which aims to improve multimodal large models by integrating human visual attention, and “MaskClip,” a sensor technology for real-time voice input, exemplify AI as a tool to extend human capabilities. These technologies share the goal of not replacing humans but serving as interfaces for human-machine collaboration, seamlessly integrating AI’s supercomputing power into human decision-making cycles.

Experts point out that the rapid development of AI has made many previously conceptualized augmentation ideas feasible. The key is ensuring that underlying AI systems are transparent, interpretable, and modifiable.

Technical Foundations: Cryptography and ZK Technology Empowerment

How can we ensure that human augmentation AI tools are safe, trustworthy, and privacy-preserving? Vitalik Buterin highlights the critical role of cryptography, especially zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology. In his speech at the 2025 Shanghai Blockchain Week, Vitalik elaborated on how ZK and fully homomorphic encryption technologies lay the foundation for building trustworthy computational environments.

As ZK technology costs plummet and performance exponentially improves, its applications are shifting from “why is this needed” to “why not use it.” In the context of human augmentation, ZK can ensure that AI handling sensitive physiological data, health information, and cognitive patterns provides valuable services without revealing the raw data.

Vitalik emphasizes an important security concept: “Not your keys, not your coins” will evolve into “Not your hardware, not your keys.” This means future augmentation devices must be built on verifiable, open-source hardware and software, ensuring users have full sovereignty over their data and capability extensions.

Market Signals: Opportunities in Cryptocurrency under the AI Narrative

Vitalik’s advocacy not only sparks discussions on technological ethics but also provides a clear investment narrative framework for the cryptocurrency market, especially for AI-related crypto assets. Historical experience shows that Vitalik’s public statements on tech ethics often trigger market attention toward related concept assets. Projects dedicated to building decentralized, human-controlled AI infrastructure align closely with Vitalik’s vision.

Currently, some AI and crypto integration projects focus on human augmentation and collaboration, such as:

• Decentralized AI marketplaces: allowing individuals to contribute computing power, data, or AI models, and engage in collaboration and value exchange under sovereignty protection.
• Privacy-preserving computation networks: utilizing federated learning and secure multi-party computation to enable AI training on encrypted data for personalized augmentation.
• ZK-enabled verifiable AI: ensuring AI reasoning processes adhere to predefined rules, are unbiased, and auditable—crucial for applications like medical diagnostics.

Investors should focus on projects emphasizing “human-in-the-loop,” user sovereignty, data privacy, and open-source verifiability, as these are more likely to align with future regulatory and ethical trends and sustain long-term value.

Trend Insights: AI Augments Humans, Not Replaces Them

Vitalik’s views resonate with global reflections on AI’s societal impact. While AI replaces some repetitive tasks, it also creates a large demand for new professions. By 2025, over 90% of Chinese workers use AI tools as part of their daily work, with 19.18% of new job postings explicitly requiring AI skills. This reveals the real market demand: high-quality talent capable of mastering and collaborating with AI. The job structure changes driven by AI are already evident worldwide. Analysts note that since 2023, over 27,000 jobs in the US have been directly replaced by AI technology.

Meanwhile, the number of entry-level positions for recent graduates has declined, while roles mentioning “artificial intelligence” have surged. This underscores the urgency of shifting toward a “talent dividend.” The most competitive advantage in the future will come from transforming the large workforce into value creators capable of efficient collaboration with augmented intelligence tools through education, training, and policy.

Investment Perspective: Positioning for Future Tracks on the Gate Platform

For investors seeking to explore the intersection of AI and blockchain, understanding and following the “human augmentation” narrative is crucial.

On the Gate platform, investors can access a range of crypto assets related to AI and decentralized computing. Conducting independent research, understanding the core technology of projects, and their alignment with the “human augmentation” philosophy are essential first steps. AI and crypto assets are highly volatile, influenced by technological progress, market narratives, macroeconomic factors, and regulatory news. Diversification and investing only what one can afford to lose are prudent. The development of human augmentation AI will be a long-term process involving technological breakthroughs, ethical consensus, and regulatory frameworks. Long-term tracking of technological and ecosystem progress is more effective than short-term price fluctuations in capturing true value.

Looking to the future, technology always leads the way. While industry giants debate the ethical boundaries of superintelligence, the pragmatic path of augmenting human intelligence is quietly unfolding. As Vitalik foresees, projects that combine cryptography and AI to create “thought mech suits” are becoming an underexplored blue ocean.