I wouldn't say it's weird -- it seems like you understood what he was saying and he misspoke. Clearly he was trying to indicate that he believed that something negative was increasing. While I agree this isn't what a negative feedback loop is, I can see how saying this is a positive feedback loop of slowdowns (an undesirable negative effect) might feel like the wrong thing to say.

A positive feedback loop in this instance means more and more of something happening, and is being reinforced in every iteration.

In control theory, the language of positive/negative in feedback loops usually means growth/diminution rather than good/bad.

It’s seemingly counter to common intuition but as a former control theorist I immediately recognized this language in the context of feedback loops.

I'm not arguing that what he said was correct nor saying that I don't know which is which. I think it's weird that we're nitpicking something that was pretty obviously miscommunicated rather than the content.

I agree that positive vs. negative is beside the point. But deadlock and positive feedback loop are different things though.

An article posted to a computer site used a computer word, of course the nerds are going to argue about it.