Anthropic’s Jack Clark pulls his full AI self-improvement forecast forward to 2027

Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark has moved up his forecast for when AI systems could fully improve themselves. He previously expected full recursive self-improvement (RSI) in late 2028. He now expects it in 2027. Clark made the update on October 12, 2026, in his Import AI newsletter. His reason was not a single breakthrough. It was a run of benchmark data showing rapid gains in areas like mathematics and automated research and development. What recursive self-improvement actually means In technical terms, full RSI describes autonomous AI systems that can enhance their own design and capabilities without human intervention. Put simply, the model stops waiting for people to build the next version and starts building it itself. The numbers behind the shorter forecast In August 2026, AI agents built on the company’s Claude model led 26% of core AI R&D tasks. Over 90% of the tasks the agents took part in reached at least a collaborative level of involvement, classified as AL3 or higher. Approximately 30,000 AI agents are running concurrently at Anthropic, according to the research findings. Safety monitors overseeing those agents reportedly show low override rates. Vals AI’s RSI Inde...