> the problem space reality presents is unimaginably large
For our purposes as a heavily time-limited species, it's infinite. Across the globe we'll probably create hundreds of thousands of narrow AI programs over the coming decades and that won't touch a meaningful fraction of what could be done. AI writing AI is the only way to jump that a lot further. I'm skeptical of general AI over the next 20-30 years or so, however I do expect we'll commonly see AI writing narrow AI programs in the next 10-15 years.
For our purposes as a heavily time-limited species, it's infinite. Across the globe we'll probably create hundreds of thousands of narrow AI programs over the coming decades and that won't touch a meaningful fraction of what could be done. AI writing AI is the only way to jump that a lot further. I'm skeptical of general AI over the next 20-30 years or so, however I do expect we'll commonly see AI writing narrow AI programs in the next 10-15 years.