Once a transparently constructed AGI becomes a good programmer it can improve itself directly. A tight feedback loop like this is rather different from the rest of the progress in AI so far.
Sure—though before machine programmers can automatically program other machine programmers they will be able to automatically program sort routines, test routines, search routines, perform refactoring, compile code, check code, find bugs, fix bugs—and so on. Those things speed up development too. The autocatalytic aspect of this is not going to start at some point in the future. It started decades ago—centuries ago if you trace the phenomenon to its roots a bit more enthusiastically.
Once a transparently constructed AGI becomes a good programmer it can improve itself directly. A tight feedback loop like this is rather different from the rest of the progress in AI so far.
Sure—though before machine programmers can automatically program other machine programmers they will be able to automatically program sort routines, test routines, search routines, perform refactoring, compile code, check code, find bugs, fix bugs—and so on. Those things speed up development too. The autocatalytic aspect of this is not going to start at some point in the future. It started decades ago—centuries ago if you trace the phenomenon to its roots a bit more enthusiastically.