Last week the Stargate Project was announced, where major companies pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in OpenAI. Their ultimate goal? To build and develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). But what does that mean exactly? Let's explore the three levels of artificial intelligence: The specialist, The All-Rounder and The God.
The Specialist (Narrow AI)
From language models like Copilot and ChatGPT, to voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, to the algorithms used on YouTube and Netflix, every AI we know and use today falls into the category of 'narrow AI'. These systems are designed to excel at a specific and singular task, performing at least as well as humans would.
Think of a chess computer that can compete with Magnus Carlsen but is terrible at predicting the weather. Or imagine narrow AI as being able to run as fast as Usain Bolt, but if you ask it to swim it won't be able to keep up with the rest of the field. They are the best in their specific discipline but excel only at the one task they were designed to do.
The All-Rounder: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
AGI is a term that’s used more and more these days. It's what many people think AI is already capable of and it’s what make some fear for what AI will become. Interestingly enough, it's also what most AI companies are racing to achieve as it doesn't exist yet. Instead of having an AI system that’s only good at one specific task, AGI can learn, understand and perform any and all (intellectual) tasks a human can perform at peak performance.
Think of the robots you see in sci-fi movies like 'I, Robot' (still one of my favorite movies). With AGI, the same system that can beat Magnus Carlsen at chess can also predict the weather, outperform Usain Bolt in the 100m dash and dominate in swimming races. It can do everything at peak performance.
The God: Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
The final boss of the levels of AI is ASI and it’s also the most difficult one to describe. This is because ASI would be far ahead of human intelligence in all capabilities and therefore (by definition) surpasses what we can imagine it would be or look like. I refer to this one as ‘The God’ because it’s something everyone will have their own definition of and nobody can tell you exactly what it is or will be. The only thing we can be sure of is that it’s more than what we know and can do as human beings.
I would love to continue the metaphor of chess, running and swimming, but as you understand that would not do ASI justice. Maybe we can suffice by saying that ASI would be able to not only perform all these at a level beyond our wildest dreams, but also might invent new ways of playing we can’t even comprehend.
Conclusion
To understand where we’re at and what’s happening with Artificial Intelligence it’s important to understand these terms and what they stand for. Each represents a different level of capability and potential impact on our world. Narrow AI excels at specific tasks, AGI aims to match all human intellectual abilities in a single system, and ASI promises to surpass human intelligence in ways we can’t begin to imagine.
Whether these developments excite you, scare you, or simply pique your curiosity, one thing is certain: AI's journey is just beginning, and its potential is (literally) limitless.