For years, artificial intelligence companies have heralded the coming of artificial general intelligence, or AGI. OpenAI, which makes the chatbot ChatGPT, has said that their founding goal was to build AGI that “benefits all of humanity” and “gives everyone incredible new capabilities.”
Google DeepMind cofounder Dr. Demis Hassabis has described AGI as a system that “should be able to do pretty much any cognitive task that humans can do.” Last year, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AGI will arrive sooner than expected, but that it would matter much less than people think. And earlier this week, Altman said in a blog post that the company knows how to build AGI as we’ve “traditionally understood it.”
But what is artificial general intelligence supposed to be, anyway?
Ira Flatow is joined by Dr. Melanie Mitchell, a professor at Santa Fe University who studies cognition in artificial intelligence and machine systems. They talk about the history of AGI, how biologists study animal intelligence, and what could come next in the field.
Further Reading
- In the Race to Artificial General Intelligence, Where’s the Finish Line? via Scientific American.
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Segment Guests
Melanie Mitchell
Dr. Melanie Mitchell is a professor at the Santa Fe Institute in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Segment Transcript
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Ira Flatow is the founder and host of Science Friday. His green thumb has revived many an office plant at death’s door.