Artificial General Intelligence- Is it the way forward?

 

Graphic created by Google's Gemini AI

For all its capabilities, AI in its traditional form has a restricting sense about it. It can be very fairly accomplished in terms of its abilities but is far from able to replicate the full spectrum of what human ability can achieve. Whatever you achieve using the current AI model in terms of efficiency and output, it willy-nilly requires some form or level of human oversight at some level. All of this may change with the advancements made by what is known as Artificial General Intelligence.

Traditional AI vs. Artificial General Intelligence

While traditional AI is known to be super-efficient when carrying out well-defined tasks like translating languages, Artificial General Intelligence or AGI can comprehend, master and apply knowledge spanning a wide spectrum of tasks like what human beings do. This takes AI much closer to replicating human behaviour in all its dimensions, including the emotional one. It is not, therefore, surprising that all the tech majors of consequence including Google, OpenAI and Meta are very gung ho about AGI. As a matter of fact, there seems to be a race on amongst them about who will be able to announce the successful launch of this "paradigm redefining" technology.

Is AGI around the corner?

For Artificial General Intelligence to have truly arrived, it should have passed the Turing Test, which denotes that one cannot tell the difference between AI’s abilities and those of a human being. As far as researchers and academics are concerned, this Rubicon will not be crossed in a hurry taking anything from a few decades to even a few centuries.[1] For many, the prospect of a delayed advent is a welcome development given the potential of a technology that performs in a manner that is in every way equal to what a human performs, potentially devastating the prospects of gainful employment. They point out the fact that AI with its presently limited abilities is already leading to significant loss of employment and how much more destabilizing would a much more evolved form of AI be for human employment.

Why is AGI so impressive?

 

AGI is expected to cause a seminal change in virtually every aspect of human existence. The fact that this technology possesses human-like cognitive abilities makes its applicable in a universal manner, which is far from the case as of now. With capabilities like these, it can be expected that AGI would be able to provide solutions to intractable human problems like climate change and economic inequalities apart from finding cures for serious human illnesses.

Furthermore, AGI could carry out cutting-edge research and come up with new discoveries and technologies in the realms of medicine, space exploration, energy and so on. These would be breathtaking in the scope of their application, forever altering the human condition for the better.

AGI would lead to humongous gains in efficiency and productivity across industries requiring both repetitive and cognitive work freeing up humans to focus entirely on creative and strategic work. From perfectly managed factories to impeccable public services people would have it very good indeed in their day to day lives.

Viewing AGI as a collaborator

 

Ultimately technology has to be in the service of humans and not the other way round. To that extent, AGI has a future as a collaborator that works for human betterment and does not seek to supplant them. It can help augment human endeavour by enhancing the latter's intelligence and ability to be creative. With its unique ability to offer real-time insights and out-of-the-box ideas, as well as helping humans to process and comprehend complex information in a very efficient manner AGI can help humans make stupendous achievements. This outstanding synergy between humans and machines can usher in a brave new world that we cannot even begin to visualise in the present times.

 

 

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[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/ https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agimckinsey-explainers/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi