Vitalik has transitioned from an early Ethereum designer to continuously leading the long-term roadmap, recently positioning Lean Ethereum as a significant protocol reconstruction following the Merge, and publicly incorporating AI as a key factor in accelerating research and coding.

In terms of capital and technological pathways, AI tools are being used for formal verification, cryptographic research, and code development, shortening a timeline that could have extended to 2040-2050; the motivation is to balance ambitious goals (quantum safety, privacy, scalable state, etc.) with the speed of real-world delivery.

Similar cases include other large open-source protocols or cryptographic projects that have long relied on human effort due to complexity, later accelerated by AI tools for formalization and optimization; currently, we are at a stage where AI can significantly contribute to research and coding, but system-level state management remains challenging.

Essentially, this represents a technological substitution and reconstruction of development productivity: shifting the research and implementation of protocol upgrades from pure human time constraints to AI-assisted acceleration, compressing the roadmap completion time from decades to a more feasible timeframe; value shifts from purely human input to effectively utilizing AI's verification and coding capabilities.

ABAB News · Cognitive Laws

Without AI, ambitious roadmaps could turn into plans for 2040; with AI, they have a chance to be realized in a shorter time.
Formal verification and complex cryptography have transitioned from "only human effort" to "AI is necessary for feasibility."
The speed of protocol upgrades now depends on whether tools can compress the time for research and coding.