Skip to content

Glossary · RSI and self-improvement

Self-improvement

A system participating in producing a better version of itself or its outputs, where an evaluator defines "better". The evaluator is load-bearing: no improvement claim means anything without a criterion that separates better from worse.

Defined in

Handbook · Agents and self-improvementSelf-improvement and evaluator co-evolutionWhen a system can change what defines "better", the evaluator becomes the load-bearing wall. What changes, who validates, how loops fail.
Bounded self-refinement
Self-improvement against a fixed external evaluator, so the process is at least conceptually convergent and evaluable.
Open-ended RSI
Recursive self-improvement that can modify not only the system but the machinery or criteria of improvement, so no external evaluator stays permanently fixed.

See it in the full glossary →