Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has offered a fresh perspective on artificial intelligence growth, asserting that current systems are steadily outperforming humans across a broader spectrum of capabilities than commonly acknowledged. Addressing how society evaluates machine intelligence, Buterin cautioned against measuring AI progress through a single, linear metric like raw economic output or generalized IQ.
Thread: how I think about the growth of AI capabilities and what it means for us as they keep getting stronger.
I think the right model for comparing humans and AI is not any single dimension like intelligence or aggregate performance on economic tasks. Rather, I view both… pic.twitter.com/q5DdqeGIuj
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) July 20, 2026
Instead, Buterin argues that both human and machine potential span diverse skill vectors. These range from fine motor skills and physical spatial tasks to advanced strategic reasoning, emotional evaluation, and complex mental computation.
1500 Paradigm: Incremental Domain Expansion
To contextualize this evolution, Buterin referenced the technology landscape of the year 1500. During that period, early mechanical innovations like watermills and windmills vastly surpassed human capacity in narrow, specialized tasks such as harnessing natural kinetic energy. However, humans retained an overwhelming advantage across virtually every other operational domain.
Today’s AI trajectories follow a parallel yet drastically scaled framework. Rather than replacing human labor via a single, sudden breakthrough, modern models are systematically conquering individual domains one after another.
Ultimately, Buterin suggests evaluating AI by tracking the expanding volume of distinct tasks it executes effectively. Rather than debating whether AI has globally become “smarter” than humanity, tracking its domain-by-domain expansion provides a clearer picture of technological convergence.
