Happy Friday, Normies! (Does that work? LMK)

If this is your first full week with us at aifnp, just an FYI that we’ve got a bit of a longer read today with a segment I call The Friday Opinion.

My goal with these is to take a step back from the rapid fire nature of most of our newsletters and to really think deeply about a particular issue, debate, or topic in and around the AI space. Given that this is our last writing until Monday, I invite you to take some time to sit and read it yourself, even if you need to come back tomorrow or Sunday when you have more time.

Sometimes these comes in the form of a personal story, other times its more of an op-ed piece. Today is a reflection on our final term of the week – AGI – and our continual moving of the goalpost of achieving it.

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 📰 And now, without further ado, onto this week’s Friday Opinion…

A Time is Coming and Has Now Come

The Perpetual Dawn of AGI

In the realm of technology, there's always a lighthouse in the distance, a beacon of what's next, what's just out of reach. For those of us who have been following the narrative of artificial intelligence (AI), this lighthouse has been the concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – a form of AI that's not just a clever mimic but a genuine equal to human intelligence, a presence that understands, learns, and evolves just like us.

I remember vividly when I first stumbled upon the term AI, back when the Internet was a new frontier for a curious mind. The early interactions were simple, almost childlike in their capabilities, but they held the promise of something more. As a kid, playing checkers against a computer was a novelty. It was AI in its infancy, but even then, it was clear that these were merely stepping stones towards something grander, more profound.

The journey of AI has been a fascinating one, marked by milestones that continually shift the horizon of our expectations. Take the Turing Test, for instance. Proposed by Alan Turing in the mid-20th century, it was a simple yet profound challenge: could a machine converse with a human in such a way that the human couldn't discern whether they were talking to another person or a computer? Back then, this seemed like the pinnacle of AI – a machine that could emulate human conversation would surely be the peak of artificial intellect.

Yet, as technology advanced, what seemed like a summit turned out to be a mere foothill. Computers began beating humans at checkers, then chess – a feat that once felt like a distant dream. When IBM's Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, it felt like a watershed moment. Here was a machine outthinking one of the greatest human minds in a game of pure intellect. But soon, even this incredible achievement began to feel like just another rung on an ever-extending ladder.

The game of Go, with its near-infinite complexity, was next. When Google's AlphaGo triumphed over Go champion Lee Sedol in 2016, it wasn't just a victory of computation over intuition; it was a glimpse into an AI that could learn and adapt in ways we'd never seen before. But did this mean we'd achieved AI in its truest sense? Not quite.

In the pursuit of AI, our goalposts kept moving. We achieved artificial narrow intelligence – machines that could outperform humans in specific tasks – but the dream of AGI, a machine with general intelligence comparable to a human's, remained elusive. We craved a machine that could write poetry, debate philosophy, invent, and empathize, not just as a programmed response, but with genuine understanding.

The term AGI emerged as a distinction from what we'd achieved. AI, as it exists today, is incredibly powerful – it drives cars, recommends movies, writes articles, and more. But it lacks the essence of AGI – the ability to apply intelligence across a broad range of tasks and contexts, much like a human.

What we seek in AGI is, in many ways, a mirror of ourselves – intelligence that's not just about processing power or data analysis, but about understanding the nuances of human experience. We dream of an AI that doesn't just 'know' but 'understands' – an AI with the capacity for creativity, empathy, and adaptability.

This pursuit of AGI is akin to chasing dawn – a perpetual state of near-achievement where the full light of day is just over the horizon. Each achievement in AI brings us closer, yet the horizon of true AGI keeps shifting. It's a journey marked not just by technological advancements but by a deeper understanding of what intelligence truly means.

In this journey, we're also learning more about ourselves – about the complexities of our own minds and the mysteries of consciousness. Perhaps the quest for AGI is not just about building a machine that thinks like us, but also about understanding the profound depths of our own intelligence.

As we stand at this pivotal moment in the evolution of AI, a series of critical questions emerge. When will we reach a consensus that AGI has truly been achieved? Is it when AI seamlessly integrates with our emotional lives, providing companionship and understanding? Or is it when it challenges our intellect, offering new perspectives and solutions to complex problems? Perhaps the arrival of AGI is marked by its ability to innovate in realms traditionally dominated by human creativity, like art and music.

These questions don't just probe the future of AI; they invite us to reflect on the essence of human intelligence and creativity. It's a contemplative journey, one that brings us closer to understanding not just the machines we build but also ourselves.

As you reflect on these questions, consider this: the very words you've just read, the thoughts written and questions posed, were not solely of human origin. This narrative, exploring the depths and boundaries of AI and AGI, was itself woven with the aid of an AI. In this subtle intertwining of human and machine, perhaps we find a glimpse of that dawn we've been chasing – a moment where the line between creator and creation blurs, inviting us to ponder not just the future of AI, but also the very essence of human intelligence and creativity itself.

Onward,

Brady Fowlkes

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