# Do Not Let Unevaluable AI Build Less Controllable Successors by Ezra Klein > “If you are losing your ability to evaluate the models you have now, maybe don't let them build models you will be even less capable of controlling in the future. Once recursive self-improvement takes off, humanity will not understand the AIs being built because we will not be building them. Development will not move at human speed or be overseen by human minds. We will have to hope that the AIs we built, the AIs they build, and the AIs those AIs build—on and on—will act with our best interests at heart forever. If this summer has proved nothing else, it is how naive that proposition would be.” > **— Ezra Klein**, *The Ezra Klein Show, September 2026* ## Sources and Context - **Timecoded episode recording:** [*The Ezra Klein Show* at 24:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZ90V_JREk&t=1470s) — recording and precise locator for the source object preserved in this Reminder. - **Reconciled source dossier:** [[research/Why Are We Sprinting Off the AI Cliff - Ezra Klein on Recursive Self-Improvement|Why Are We Sprinting Off the AI Cliff?]] — preserves broadcast order, speaker attribution, editorial conventions and the surrounding argument. - **Editorial treatment:** The poster text follows the reconciled source object without substantive alteration; spoken punctuation and transcript lineation are normalized for reading. - **Context:** Klein joins evaluability and recursive self-improvement: systems humans cannot reliably assess should not autonomously build successors that humans understand even less. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] - **Article:** [[articles/Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse|Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/AI Evaluability|AI Evaluability]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/AI Evaluability|AI Evaluability]] - [[wiki/Recursive Self-Improvement|Recursive Self-Improvement]] - [[wiki/Loss of AI Control|Loss of AI Control]] - [[wiki/Human Oversight|Human Oversight]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “If you are losing your ability to evaluate the models you have now, maybe don't let them build models you will be even less capable of controlling in the future. Once recursive self-improvement takes off, humanity will not understand the AIs being built because we will not be building them. Development will not move at human speed or be overseen by human minds. We will have to hope that the AIs we built, the AIs they build, and the AIs those AIs build—on and on—will act with our best interests at heart forever. If this summer has proved nothing else, it is how naive that proposition would be.” — Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show, September 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-ezra-klein-unevaluable-ai-build-less-controllable-successors ```