Vitalik Buterin: Without AI, Ethereum's Lean roadmap might take until 2040 Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin @VitalikButerin stated during an interview with Balaji Srinivasan @balajis at the Network State Conference 2026 on October 9 that AI has become a key factor in advancing the Lean Ethereum roadmap. Vitalik mentioned that based on the current roadmap's goals and ambitions, without AI, the related work might need to continue until 2040 or even 2050. Today, AI is already capable of contributing to a significant amount of research and code development, greatly accelerating the progress of the entire roadmap. Source: Network State Podcast