Artificial General Intelligence (Destruction or Immortality?)

This is an ever-growing topic in our present time. Everyone knows about Artificial Intelligence. However, how much do you know about Artificial General Intelligence or Singularity? What is the difference between them? Why are the consequences of Singularity exaggerated to either the worst or the best thing that could happen to humanity? The coming paragraphs will answer these questions.

What is the difference between Artificial Narrow Intelligence and Artificial General Intelligence?

Source: Nastel (URL=https://www.nastel.com/artificial-general-intelligence-what-does-it-mean-and-should-we-be-worried-about-it/)

To help you understand the difference, the Artificial Intelligence that we have today is called ‘Artificial Narrow Intelligence’. Those are machines that do a single task. For example: help you find your way through google maps. Artificial General Intelligence, on the other hand, describes a machine’s ability to figure things out just like a human. In fact, having a human-like intelligence was the main goal of AI development.

The different views on the outcome of AGI

So why can a robot that thinks like a human be a problem? It has to do with two main factors. Sci-fi movies exaggerate these, but the concerns are simple. For one thing, machines are susceptible to hackers. Elon Musk donated 10 million dollars to keep the development of AGI safe, which includes being safe from cults or groups that could abuse it. For another, as AGI learns at speeds that a human cannot comprehend, eventually being able to reprogram itself is a probable outcome. That can also mean it would reprogram its initial commands, such as: do not harm humans.

These are just speculations of what could happen that could be destructive to humanity. Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist and inventor, has a different view of AGI. He believes it will bring us an age of prosperity and may even solve the problem of death. As an example, our current AI has made immense progress in the medical field and is starting to generate a better diagnosis than the doctors. There is no reason not to believe that an AGI would solve the problem of aging.

Source: Xephor Solutions (URL=https://medium.com/@ga_38138/xephor-solutions-launches-state-of-the-art-artificial-general-intelligence-software-914c01fa8e2f)

When will AGI Arrive?

According to Pindex, experts were asked in 2013 about when the first AGI will arrive and the most common answer was 2040. An AI that passes human level intelligence learns at an incomprehensible pace. As a result, they will surpass human intelligence to an extent that we cannot possibly catch up with. Elon Musk’s Neuralink project is a planned development to merge humans with AI. That is because when Super Intelligence arises, we have to catch up.

Too many sci-fi stories predicted different outcomes to AGI, and most of them are dystopian. Though the problems in these stories are real, their exaggerations are for entertainment reasons. Every story needs a problem for a protagonist to solve. Reality in the next 10 to 20 years may look very different from any book or movie. Will AGI destroy us, or make us immortal? Or will we become AGIs ourselves? Wait for the next few years to find out.

References:

Pindex (2017). Will AI make us immortal? Or will it wipe us out? Elon Musk, Ray Kurzweil and Nick Bostrom. [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgVI2vBxQK4

O’Carroll, Brodle (2020): What Are The 3 Types Of AI? A Guide to Narrow, General, And Super Artificial Intelligence. [online] codebots.com/artificial-intelligence/the-3-types-of-ai-is-the-third-even-possible. Codebots.

Science Time (2020): The Rise of Artificial General Intelligence – A.G.I. [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3G40SX6lKQ.