Vitalik Buterin has urged against lengthening the feedback distance between humans and artificial intelligence, a notion he deems detrimental for the future. As AI becomes more powerful, he warns that the risk of an irreversible anti-human outcome increases, stressing that Ethereum should liberate people rather than enable autonomous systems that operate independently. He adds that “Today, it means you’re generating slop instead of solving truly useful problems for humanity. There’s not even entertainment value,” a view he expressed to emphasize the need for responsible AI development.
Buterin also discussed upcoming Ethereum updates, notably EIP-8141 (based on 7701) and the FOCIL mechanism. EIP-8141 is described as making smart accounts full participants in the network, enabling them to send transactions directly and without restrictions, with native support for multisig wallets, quantum-resistant signatures, key changes, gas sponsorship, and built-in privacy mechanisms. FOCIL, or Fork Choice-enforced Inclusion Lists, is presented as a mechanism for rapid and censorship-resistant transaction inclusion, with several includers selected to integrate a small list of transactions independently of the validator. The synergy between FOCIL and AA (EIP-8141) enables transactions from smart wallets and privacy protocols to flow through the public mempool and be accepted by FOCIL swiftly, even in hostile environments, likely within 1–2 slots.
Buterin notes that FOCIL currently caps at 8 kB per slot but can scale to accommodate more transactions as needed. He emphasizes that while this design does not eliminate validator centralization, it significantly reduces its impact and enhances the network’s resilience. Ultimately, he frames Ethereum’s mission as liberating humanity, not creating autonomous agents that operate without human oversight.
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