Von Neumanns constructor is about self replication. Not quite an AI that can self improve. I think the first person to put the idea forward was I. J. Good in 1

Von Neumanns constructor is about self replication. Not quite an AI that can self improve. I think the first person to put the idea forward was I. J. Good in 1962. He speculated that someday AIs would be good enough to do AI research better than their human masters. Then they would start making even better AIs. Which would make even better AIs, and so on. Leading to what he called an "intelligence explosion". He thought it would be "the last invention that man need ever make." http://web.archive.org/web/20160428183531/http://le-cretin-transnational.ch/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Good-Speculations-Concerning-the-First-Ultraintelligent-Machine.pdf http://web.archive.org/web/20160428183531/http://le-cretin-t...