The Fire That Learns to Make Fire: Governing AI at the First Signs of Recursive Self-Improvement
Frontier AI is not yet recursively self-improving in the strong sense — but it is already inside the loop that builds the next system, writing the code, running the experiments, improving the scaffolds. The governance object is shifting from a model to a loop. Read from inside AI governance: a five-layer map of RSI, the evidence from METR, AISI, and the lab frameworks, the epistemic asymmetry that makes self-certification weak, and a seven-point agenda — including an AI Evaluation Corps for Europe and Spain.