Recursive self-improvement

Recursive self-improvement is when a system, like an artificial intelligence, improves itself and then uses those improvements to make itself even better in a repeating cycle. Imagine a student who learns study techniques, uses them to learn faster, then discovers better techniques based on that improved learning—that's the basic idea, but applied to increasingly complex systems. This concept is important in discussions about advanced AI because theoretically such a cycle could accelerate rapidly, potentially leading to dramatic improvements in capability over a short period.