Vitalik Buterin has urged against increasing the "feedback distance" between humans and artificial intelligence, arguing that it poses a threat to the future. The Ethereum co-founder believes this approach is detrimental.
Bro, this is wrong.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 19, 2026
Lengthening the feedback distance between humans and AIs is not a good thing for the world.
Today, it means you're generating slop instead of solving useful problems for people. It's not even well-optimized for helping people have fun.
Once AI becomes…
The visionary commented on a post by a developer known as Sigil, who described the creation of an AI agent capable of autonomous existence—earning, self-improving, and replicating itself. Sigil referred to this approach as a precursor to Web 4.0.
“Today, it means you’re generating slop instead of solving truly useful problems for humanity. There’s not even entertainment value in this,” Buterin stated.
He added that as artificial intelligence becomes powerful enough to pose real dangers, the risk of an "irreversible anti-human outcome" increases.
“The purpose of Ethereum is to liberate us, not to create something else that operates independently while the situation for [humans] remains the same or even worsens,” Buterin asserted.
The developer emphasized that the main task of our current era is not to "accelerate the exponent even further," but to choose its direction and avoid falling into "undesirable attractors."
Buterin also discussed the benefits of upcoming updates EIP-8141 (based on 7701) and the FOCIL mechanism.
There is also an important synergy between FOCIL and AA (EIP-8141, which is based on 7701):
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 19, 2026
8141 makes not just smart accounts (including multisig, quantum-resistant signatures, key changes, gas sponsorship) first-class citizens, it also can do the same for privacy protocols… https://t.co/wLCEuq66eI
What is EIP-8141?
EIP-8141 is a proposal to make smart accounts first-class participants in the network, enabling them to send transactions directly and without restrictions.
Benefits include:
- native support for multisig wallets;
- quantum-resistant signatures;
- key changes;
- gas sponsorship (third-party fee payments);
- built-in privacy mechanisms.
With EIP-8141, wallets become programmable at the protocol level rather than just on top of it.
What is FOCIL?
FOCIL (Fork Choice-enforced Inclusion Lists) is a mechanism for quickly and censorship-resistant inclusion of transactions into blocks.
Currently, Ethereum faces a problem: if a proposer (validator proposing a block) or builder (Block Builder) refuses to process a transaction, it can get stuck.
FOCIL creates an alternative route. In each slot, not only the proposer is randomly selected, but also several "includers." They gain the right to integrate a small list of transactions into the blockchain independently of the validator.
This approach:
- reduces the risk of censorship;
- ensures quick transaction confirmations;
- minimizes the influence of individual network participants.
Synergy of FOCIL and AA
According to Buterin, the combination of FOCIL and EIP-8141 (AA) allows any transaction to be added to the blockchain through one of 17 randomly selected proposers or "includers." This applies to smart wallet operations, privacy protocols, and gas-sponsored transfers.
“This guarantees rapid inclusion—almost certainly within 1-2 slots—even in a hostile environment,” the developer reported.
He noted that the current version of FOCIL is limited to 8 kB. However, a built-in scaling mechanism allows this limit to be increased to accommodate a larger portion of block transactions when necessary.
This system possesses characteristics of architectures with multiple parallel proposers, but there is a key difference: FOCIL does not attempt to control the role of the "last look"—it is still distributed through ePBS auctions.
“The design of FOCIL ensures that even if literally 100% of slots are sold to a malicious network participant who refuses to connect to public mempools, discriminates against certain applications, or acts in bad faith, all transactions will still quickly make it into a block,” Buterin explained.
He added that this does not eliminate the centralization of the validator's role, but significantly reduces its influence.
“With EIP-8141 (AA), transactions from smart wallets, privacy protocols, and similar solutions can be sent through the public mempool and directly accepted by FOCIL. Everything works without wrappers, public relays, or other intermediaries,” the developer concluded.
It’s worth noting that there have been changes in leadership at the Ethereum Foundation, with Tomas Stanczak stepping down as executive director.