Vitalik Buterin: AI Has Knowledge but Lacks Wisdom

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated that artificial intelligence possesses vast knowledge but lacks wisdom. He noted that chatbots can find references on almost any topic but only judge the superficial aspects of the text. His comments appeared in a discussion on X about whether modern chatbots can compete with the most attentive human readers.

The debate began after a Wall Street Journal publication about the Humanities 10 course at Harvard, which is challenging for freshmen. This semester, the number of applications increased by 40 percent: 180 students are vying for 90 spots. Students read a heavy book each week, and devices are banned in class. Some applicants said they want to find an antidote to the simplifications offered by AI. In response, one user claimed that today's models surpass any human in discussing classics, as they have read everything. A writer countered, calling the chatbot reviews of her essay nonsense at this point.

Buterin joined the debate and drew a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. In his message, he wrote: "I believe that AI has enormous knowledge and can notice references to almost anything, but it is not very wise, and therefore makes only the most superficial judgments about what thought the text is trying to convey." In his opinion, AI's knowledge is easier to notice than its limited wisdom, as wisdom, unlike intelligence, can be inherently difficult to verify.

The weakness becomes more noticeable when the model reads a text for the first time. Famous works, on the other hand, are accompanied by numerous human analyses in training data. Buterin also recently warned that AI could weaken key aspects of crypto security within two years and created a paranoid mode for chats with AI. Some investors argue that AI already surpasses the best human minds in mathematics.

Meanwhile, crypto teams continue to hand over audits, research, and governance summaries to AI agents. Superficial reading can miss a subtle flaw in a smart contract or token release schedule. Buterin emphasizes: facts are easy to verify against a source, but judgment on a completely new text is not. His recent support for an AI model with limited hacking skills shows the same desire to maintain human control.