Given the rate of improvement, why is this deranged?

> This is known as Recursive Self-Improvement, or RSI.

Some call this "The singularity" (e.g. Hinton).

This is actually a core danger postulated by the, let's call it, "worrying" scenario - see AI 2027 (to be clear, I think its timeline is not realistic).

> Statements dreamed up by the utterly deranged.

Evidently, and tragically, it will take catastrophes to show that deranged are the ones deriding the worried crowd.