> "the start of the banana zone"

What does this mean? Is it some slang for exponential growth, or is it a reference to something like the "paperclip maximizer"?

It's slang for the J part of the exponential curve. Didn't expect that to be a problem here, sorry.

There is a bunch of new phrases people have been using around AI topics, so it can be hard to tell what exactly is being talked about, like "Roko's Basilisk", the "lottery card hypothesis?"(not quite remembering the phrasing on this one), "the bitter lesson", "paperclip maximizing", "stochastic parrot", etc.. Thank you for clarifying. I was kind of hoping there was a fun blog or story with a "banana zone".

I’m with gthompson512

Sounds like a routine Bill Hicks might have come up with if he was still with us.

He hated obfuscation.