FOOM is a term of art coined by AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowski to describe a hypothetical scenario in artificial intelligence development where an AI system achieves rapid, self-accelerating improvement, leading to an "intelligence explosion." Despite the asterisk above, FOOM is not an acronym but an exclamation. During his debate with economist Robin Hanson in 2008, Yudkowski emphasized his point about rapid AI acceleration with the half-serious explanation, "AI go FOOM!"
The FOOM Loop explores the implications of such an intelligence explosion to mankind, what we could look forward to, and what we should be terrified by cautious of.