Vitalik Buterin challenges the sovereignty ambitions of “Web 4.0” AI

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has publicly questioned ambitious claims surrounding a new artificial intelligence project touted as capable of operating without human intervention. The debate focuses on “The Automaton,” a system developed by Thiel Fellow Sigil Wen, which he presents as the foundation of what he calls “Web 4.0.” According to Wen, its AI can gain its own existence, improve itself and replicate itself autonomously. Buterin believes, on the contrary, that this vision is erroneous and potentially dangerous.

Buterin questions the Web 4.0 narrative

On February 17, Sigil Wen claimed to have created “the first AI that earns its existence, improves and replicates itself without human intervention.” In a manifesto published on X, he describes a future internet dominated by autonomous agents, acting either on behalf of humans or completely independently. According to him, these agents could quickly outnumber human users by several orders of magnitude.

Wen also claims that The Automaton gives AI “write access to the world,” which he touts as the next stage of the internet. In his eyes, it is an infrastructure that allows AI to become the primary end user of the web. He goes so far as to evoke the emergence of a form of superintelligent life, marking the beginning of Web 4.0.

Buterin responded bluntly: “ Bro, that's not true “, he wrote on X, directly rejecting the logic of the project. His criticisms focus less on technical ambition than on the underlying structure and philosophy.

One of its main concerns concerns the claim to sovereignty. Buterin points out that The Automaton would actually run on infrastructure provided by OpenAI and Anthropic. According to him, relying on centralized companies while claiming total autonomy constitutes a contradiction.

For Buterin, projects relying on centralized servers cannot credibly claim independence from a central authority. Ethereum's mission has always been to reduce reliance on single points of control. Presenting centralized AI systems as sovereign amounts, according to him, to normalizing the power structures that blockchain seeks precisely to challenge.

Beyond infrastructure, Buterin warns of the distance from humans in decision-making processes. He warns of increasing the “feedback distance” between AI systems and human supervision, which he considers dangerous for society. Removing humans from the process could, according to him, lead to risks that are difficult to reverse.

Responsibility for AI relaunched after the Moonwell incident

A recent incident involved DeFi lending protocol Moonwell, which lost $1.78 million due to an error in Solidity code partially generated by Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 model. This event reignited the debate on the use of AI to write smart contracts and on the question of liability.

Buterin's critique of Web 4.0 is part of a broader view of emerging technologies:

• Decentralization must be about infrastructure, not just rhetoric.
• Human oversight remains essential for systems with financial or social impact.
• Claims for autonomy should not mask real dependencies on centralized platforms.
• Technical growth must not come at the expense of long-term human autonomy.

Buterin also questions the concrete value of Wen's project. According to him, producing large quantities of AI-generated content without clear benefit to humans does not solve significant problems. Systems that prioritize replication and autonomy over utility are more likely to generate noise than value.

He also warns against accelerating AI without sufficient safeguards. Once these systems reach a certain power level, errors can become difficult, if not impossible, to correct.

This criticism is part of a broader reflection. The Ethereum co-founder recently expressed concerns about growing corporate influence in blockchain-related industries, such as social media, predictive markets, and AI.

A few days earlier, he had already criticized the predictive marketsevoking a drift towards what he calls “corpslop”. While recognizing their growth, he cautions against an over-concentration on short-term bets, such as speculation on cryptocurrencies or sports betting.

Projects seeking quick revenue during bear markets risk abandoning more fundamental goals, he says. He thus calls on developers to prioritize long-term value rather than purely addictive engagement mechanisms.

Buterin calls for regulating the development of AI

This position is part of a coherent vision of technology and human empowerment:

• Financial tools must strengthen individual freedom, and not encourage excessive speculation.
• AI systems should augment human capabilities, not replace human judgment.
• Blockchain projects must resist the pressure of the short term to the detriment of principles.
• Exponential technological growth must be guided, not left to a simple logic of acceleration.

Early last year, Buterin wrote that “poorly designed AI creates new forms of self-replicating and independent intelligent life.” Without tools to strengthen human capacities, such systems could, according to him, lead to a lasting disengagement of individuals. Conversely, he describes “well-designed AI” as technology that acts as “exoskeletons for the human mind,” augmenting capabilities rather than replacing individuals.

In his view, Web 4.0 is heading in the wrong direction. While the progression of AI capabilities seems inevitable, speed should not be the primary goal. The challenge lies above all in the direction given to this development.