Scaling Intelligence: Why Kardashev Isn’t Just for Civilizations Anymore
Opening — Why this matters now The AI world is busy arguing over whether we’ve reached “AGI,” but that debate usually floats somewhere between philosophy and marketing. What’s been missing is a testable, falsifiable way to measure autonomy—not in poetic metaphors, but in operational metrics. A recent proposal introduces exactly that: a Kardashev-inspired, multi‑axis scale for Autonomous AI (AAI). Instead of guessing whether a system is “smart enough,” this framework measures how much real work an AI can independently do, how fast it improves itself, and whether that improvement survives real-world drift. Businesses, regulators, and investors will need this level of clarity sooner than they think. ...