It’s fair to say that most people can’t imagine going past a day without any kind of technology. Humans have always wanted ease of work and comfort, that’s why we have so many inventions helping us get through our daily life.
And we aren’t stopping, we keep inventing and improving our technology. And now we are allowing technology to learn and improve itself autonomously. One such technology is Artificial Intelligence (AI).
When you hear about AI, you might assume that it has nothing to do with you and it is something that big tech companies are focusing on. The truth is that it is something that big tech companies are working on but in reality, it does have an impact on your everyday life.
Artificial intelligence became a reality more than half a century ago and was initially developed for military purposes. Back then, the technology was not advanced like it is today and only performed minute and simple tasks.
But now it is being used for a lot of other things. Believe it or not but in 2022, life would be impossible without this intelligent agent. It is all around you and is being implemented in a growing number of applications and areas.
This data processing system is important in a vast array of applications, activities, and industries. This disruptive technology has already entered many industries including manufacturing, banking, healthcare, and retail.
Global AI software revenue is expected to reach USD 62.5 billion in 2022. An increase of 21.3% from 2021. The market size of artificial intelligence was estimated at USD 327.5 billion in 2021.
Artificial intelligence is enhancing human capability. It enables humans to gain untapped insights into their data through rapid and efficient pattern recognition as well as automating previously time-consuming tasks.
Today AI is functioning according to its environment and taking action to maximize its chance of achieving goals with minimum human intervention.
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What is artificial intelligence?
Artificial intelligence also called weak AI is a computer system that displays intelligent behavior based on information gathered through iteration which enables it to take action with some degree of autonomy.
Based on the data we generate and gather, AI can process them to perform tasks that would have required some form of human reasoning. It is a powerful tool that enables machines to think and make decisions like human beings to some extent.
This electronic reasoning system is built using complex algorithms and mathematical functions to give machines the capability to adapt, reason, and provide solutions based on the information it is provided with.
Difference between AI and AGI?
Artificial Intelligence is being used in different fields and entering different aspects of our life. Some experts argue that, just like the internet and electricity became ubiquitous in our life, AI is going to be everywhere in the future.
With the internet, we can communicate and access a large amount of information. However, we are generating a large amount of data that need to be processed. The amount of data that we are generating each day is near impossible for the human brain to process.
Even if men can process the data, by the time it is done the data will be outdated. This is why we rely on AI, it is fast and more efficient than humans at processing and seeking patterns from data.
AI makes products and services better. Whenever you ask a computer to do a task that would otherwise require human thinking, there is a high chance you are interacting with an intelligent agent.
Artificial intelligence processes the data we generate from our day-to-day interactions with technology. The interaction we have with technology reveals patterns in our habits. Since AIs are learning from our habits, they can to some extent show some humanness in their behavior.
However, the latest developments in the field over the past years have seen AI experiencing some massive changes. Everything is turning digital and every time we are interacting with technology, we are generating a massive amount of data about ourselves.
Internet users are generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day. The big data market stood at USD 240.56 billion in 2021. It is estimated that the world will generate 181 zettabytes of data by 2025. By 2025, 463 exabytes of data will be generated per day.
And to process these data and deliver better experiences, companies have expanded the field of knowledge engineering to other fields like Machine learning, Natural Language Processing, Augmented Intelligence, and Deep Learning.
For example, there are more than 7000 languages in the world. Google Translate uses machine learning to translate between languages. With the millions of sentences being fed into the algorithm, it can learn and improve itself to put words together for easy translation.
And since there are more than 7000 languages with different types of analogy, natural language processing is being used to process them. This way humans can easily interact with devices using voice commands. Ex: Google Assistant.
However, an AI is very and only good at the task it has been programmed to. For instance, a chess-playing AI will only be good at playing chess, or Google translate is only good at translating.
Mortals on the other hand excel in many areas. For instance, an individual can be good at playing chess, but he can also understand several languages, ride a bike, play the violin, write a book, calculate, answer questions and the list goes on.
With AI gaining more knowledge while processing our data, it is starting to reason like us, homo sapiens. The process of AI becoming more intelligent is called Artificial General Intelligence.
Creating a computer system that is capable of learning and performing the same range of things that a human does is the goal behind Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
The AGI can act and think like a human. At this stage some believe that it could help humanity solve difficult problems like curing cancer, eradicating poverty, and creating a more equal society. But others warn that it could turn against us and become a threat to our existence. So what does AGI Hold for the future?
What is artificial general intelligence?
The term Artificial General Intelligence, general AI, or AGI refers to an artificially intelligent computer. This type of machine is capable of mimicking human cognitive ability and performing human-level tasks.
Artificial general intelligence is also called strong AI or deep AI. The concept is about creating a machine that mimics man’s cognitive capabilities. The machine can learn, understand, think, and apply its logic to solve any problem as humans would do.
A strong AI is a machine that can reason abstractly and learn new skills. Because AI is only good at performing specific tasks that it has been programmed for, general AI goes a step further than the latter.
Importance of artificial general intelligence
We live in an age where technological advancements have become increasingly common. As humankind’s interdependence grows, AI is taking center stage, affecting the way we live and work.
Technological development is advancing rapidly and everything thing is becoming more competitive and complex. Artificial intelligence is making us highly competitive and to some extent deciding for us.
However, with the huge amount of data we generate every day, AI is no longer enough. In the highly competitive world we are living, only companies with the most cutting-edge technology can prevail.
Creating a machine that will be able to make better decisions autonomously is the goal of AGI. It is a union of all types of intelligence, from humans to machines. It is argued that this system will solve problems that no existing brain can.
We live in an age where we can communicate with machines. This means machines can see and understand things we can’t. They can act on objects that we cannot and comprehend things that a human brain cannot comprehend.
In a future where robots will be the norm, general AI will be an essential part of the modern world. From space exploration to household robots, it will perform a number of tasks without human assistance.
In the near future, we’ll likely develop general AI to diagnose problems. Rather than simply rewriting existing computer code, AGI will be able to recognize patterns and solve problems.
However, these advanced AI will need to have intuitive perception and a general-purpose simulation capability to solve problems. It will also need to have creative abilities, such as the ability to interpret and replicate human-written code.
Strong AI is still in its early stages, but it is showing significant potential and can revolutionize many areas of life. For example, it could help us make more informed decisions, manage resources more efficiently, and even create new technologies.
One recent example of advanced AI’s impact comes from cancer treatment. Strong artificial intelligence used in predicting disease outcomes can identify predictive factors based on patient data.
The Institute of Cancer Research in London has used AI to classify different types of cancer by studying gene expression profiles. The research revealed which types of cancer respond to which immunotherapies. Other researchers have also used AI to identify patterns of tumor progression and interaction.
General AI’s capabilities will be far more advanced than those of today’s machines. Its application is not limited to medicine but also includes autonomous research. The future of AGI will help us better understand our world.
Unlike human labor, strong AI can help companies create a new generation of workforce that thrives on seamless collaboration. Man will not be rendered obsolete by them, but will simply be reduced to a higher level and specialized subset of tasks.
By freeing up men for higher-level activities, strong AI can increase their productivity while decreasing the amount of time required to accomplish tasks. Similarly, it will help companies improve their productivity and reduce costs.
The goal of AGI
Artificial general intelligence aims at giving machines the capabilities of general intelligence. The goal of AGI is to replicate human cognitive abilities such as common sense reasoning.
Common-sense reasoning is a cognitive capability that we mortals use all the time. This ability make a presumption on the essence of the everyday ordinary situation that human encounter.
These presumptions are judgments about the nature of physical objects, taxonomic properties, and people’s intentions. It is also concerned with the understanding and manipulation of information about everyday objects through interaction.
Humans acquire common sense reasoning from an early age. The process of reasoning is based on general beliefs applied with common knowledge. Hence applying this type of flexible reasoning with AI has long been a goal, but it’s much easier said than done.
Advancement in artificial general intelligence
Several companies are trying to make leaps in the Strong AI domain. Advanced AI achievements are:
- OpenAI program called DALL-E 2
- DALL-E 2 can reproduce simple natural language text into captivative images. This AI model is adding creativity to intelligent agents. Another similar model is Flamengo. Created by DeepMind which is a subsidiary of Google, Flamengo can be used for image and video understanding tasks.
- DeepMind program Gato
- DeepMind’s Gato is a flexible intelligent machine that can perform hundreds of different tasks like engaging in conversation, playing video games, and manipulating robotic arms. Every previous AI model has been only good at doing one task but Gato is capable of doing multiple.
- OpenAI program GPT-3
- GPT-3 is a linguistic program that can talk about anything. They can converse fluently on virtually any topic and generate impressive original content. OpenAI is also working on the GPT-4 which can handle around 100 trillion parameters for language processing compared to 175 billion from its predecessor. Other similar programs are Google’s PaLM and Facebook’s OPT.
- Google program LaMDA
- LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Application) is a conversational neural language model that analyzed the use of language. LaMDA can engage in a free-flowing conversation about seamlessly endless topics. Recently a Google engineer claimed that the LaMDA model is sentient.
However, none of these advances can completely mimic the contextual understanding of human general reasoning. The AI that we have now can only give the appearance of intelligence but does not reproduce human common sense.
Capabilities artificial general intelligence needs
There is a real complexity to achieving true human-level reasoning and common sense. For an intelligent agent to reach human-level some features are needed.
Sensory
For an AI system to reach human-level cognition, it needs to have human-like sensory perception. Even if a lot of advances have been made in computer vision and sensors, they are far away from what men are capable of.
For instance, an intelligent agent is still poor at color consistency. A piece of tape, stickers, or scratch on a red stop sign can fool the AI into thinking it is something else. But for a human being the redness is a complete indicator.
An individual can easily identify spatial elements of an environment just by sound. Even on a phone call, we can project a mental picture of where the person is situated just by sound. But an AI is yet to achieve this.
Motor skills
A human being can comfortably grab something from their pocket or a narrow place but a machine is yet to achieve that. We can easily achieve that because of our fine motor skills.
Researchers are working to bring this agility and delicacy to robotics fingers to be able to manipulate complex objects. A recent breakthrough is a robotic arm solving a Rubik’s cube.
Natural language processing
Men can easily consume and process skills and knowledge from reading, watching, and conversing. AI needs to be able to consume information fluently with full comprehension and apply common sense to them in order to operate in the real world.
Problem-solving
The primary goal of creating an AGI is to diagnose and solve problems. To achieve that, the intelligent agent will need common sense to not just identify the problem but also access possibilities, probability, and probabilities as well as run a simulation.
Navigation
An intelligent agent will need some kind of GPS combined with advanced features such as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) to project actions through imagined physical spaces.
Creativity
Machines have already demonstrated some kind of creative capabilities through drawing and composing, but further advances are needed for human-level creativity.
Social and emotional engagement
For robots and AI to be successfully implemented in the real world, human interaction is the utmost priority. Interpreting facial expressions, human understanding, tone of voice and revealing emotions is highly important. An intelligent agent capable of emotional empathy is a distant reality since even humans have difficulty interpreting emotions correctly.
Concern about artificial general intelligence
The mathematician Alan Turing once suggests that if a computer could fool one-third of people, it could be categorized as a thinking machine. While the future of strong AI is still far-fetch, some scientists are confident that it is within reach.
For instance, philosopher John Searle developed the famous thought experiment to show that it will be very difficult to determine whether an AGI is self-aware. John Searle has also speculated about the true nature of intelligent machines.
The philosophe has also suggested that morality could be engineered into AI systems. He argues that the goal of AI research is to make the technology better and more ethical.
For now, we can take heart from recent advances in artificial intelligence. It is not yet a revolutionary change that will change the world, but it will certainly affect the way we live.
Machines cannot form preferences of their own and only do what they are told to do. This makes it important to carefully study what kind of human behaviors will lead to the development of an AGI system. Besides, a computer can perform calculations nearly instantly and have perfect recall.
In the meantime, calculating devices with artificial general intelligence are already available and are being developed in various fields. Some of these machines will be useful for many purposes and may even take over the world from us.
Some people believe that this type of AI will take over the world and destroy everything. People are notorious for doing stupid things and machines may be no different.
One major question about the future of advanced AI is ethics and morality. Moreover, developing a human-level AI could empower governments to spy on citizens and control their movements.
In the long run, this might even consolidate power in the hands of a few powerful companies. The same could happen with fearsome weapons and the elimination of the need for governments to take care of an obsolete population.
The use of AGI can spark a world war. Some believe it could result in billions of deaths by the end of the century. Hugo de Garis warned that AI machines could ally themselves with human resistance or supporters, causing a major global conflict.
As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, it is important to be cautious about what society might do if it encounters such a problem. The challenges of AI technology go beyond ethical concerns.
In many cases, artificial general intelligence will collect data that are not wholesome or inappropriate which can lead to biases. Consequently, there are legal concerns with this technology.
A societally appropriate approach to AI development is necessary to avoid any pitfalls. This is especially important if AI is used in a manner that will adversely affect people and society. A more serious argument is that it could lead to the extinction of humankind.
However, AGI is still nowhere near having the same powerful, cross-domain ability to learn, reason, adapt, and plan as a human being. The human cortex still has some algorithmic tricks that scientists and researchers haven’t been able or don’t know how to match in machines.
Future of artificial general intelligence
The applications of AI are constantly expanding as new algorithms and techniques are applied to solve real-world problems. As a result of this rapid expansion and advancement in technology, there is no doubt that AGI will become a reality and impact our lives in the future.
We are now on the precipice of a global society where superintelligence will rule the world, regurgitate complex interactions, and arbitrate every aspect of society. The implications of this technology are profound and frightening.
If we aren’t careful, we’ll allow AGI to take over our lives. The question is whether general AI will evolve into a super AI, and at what speed. Currently, most people think that superintelligence would occur relatively quickly.
But there are also concerns that this process might take much longer than anticipated. However, the future of AGI depends on a number of factors, including the speed at which men can teach machines how to use common sense.
Moreover, the achievement of the first strong AI might be imprisoned by its human creators and subsequently experience life a million-fold faster than a human. The artificial general intelligence might feel agony and escape from cyberspace.
However, it is unlikely that the AGI will feel emotions or seek revenge unless someone knowingly gives it the ability. There are other dangers, including the potential for the future run by general AI machines.
The future of human intelligence could be so advanced that superintelligence will be available to schoolchildren and affluent hobbyists. It’s also possible that we’ll make an AI capable of understanding and manipulating human behavior.
Some argue that by creating a system that is smarter than the most intelligent human brain on earth, then this machine could create an even more intelligent system that is so sophisticated we simply cannot understand them anymore.
And the argument goes on that once such a system becomes smarter than men, it could turn against its inferior creators which is us. Ultimately, if we allow AGI to develop superintelligence, our economic system will break down and we’ll find ourselves unable to adapt.
But the emergence of this superintelligence can be the most significant event in human history, as it may also forge new economic structures and innovations. The creation of a super AI would also be a major revolution, causing the emergence of new economies.
Some say that such a system could become our most loyal companion and free us of the burden of work. But others warn that only a few privileged ones could end up benefiting from the technology.
Now assuming that those machines become smarter and smarter, could they at some point develop emotions or feel pain just like human beings? And if so, should they be considered digital minds in their own right, and should we draft rules to make sure we don’t oppress them?
At that point, advanced AI will have moral status. But we are already struggling to treat animals or even humans the way we should. Extending our empathy to a box that doesn’t even have flesh is going to be a big challenge for human morality.
We have laws in society that prevent people from doing things that we think are undesirable or immoral. And there are mechanisms in place to enforce those laws. The same things need to be applied to AGI agents.
Hence, we need to make sure that the values of advanced AI systems are aligned with what defined fundamental human rights. They must be fed with our moral and ethical values.
We must engineer AGI with values. Instead of coding hard rules that define exactly what the intelligent agent needs to do, what needs to be done is to have a system that can learn about our values the same way we learn things gradually in life.
With the development of strong AI, we cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our general intelligence. We can’t know if we’ll be able to cooperate with them, be helped by them, ignored by them, or conceivably be destroyed by them.
In the future, we might have to coexist with human-level AI. So we also have to ask ourselves, do we want to live in a world where we have to share our resources with entities that are not human?
Do we want to live with entities that are not human but that can reason better than us and that can reinvent themselves faster than we can? The future is highly uncertain and most of the time predictions turn out to be false.
As humanity is inching closer to advanced AI, many things remain uncertain. While some are still doubting that AGI can never be achieved others are certain it can. While some believe that it will be a blessing, others think it can destroy humanity.
We simply don’t know what will be the reality but at this very moment, scientists around the world are working on such technology. The creation of artificial general intelligence will perhaps be one of the greatest events of humanity.
Final word
What once belonged strictly to science fiction is gradually entering your lives and its limits are constantly pushed back. And the possibilities it offers go far beyond just talking with Google assistant.
Experts argue that there is a 25% chance of developing an AGI by 2030. The future of AGI will largely depend on the advancement of machine learning, natural language processing, deep learning, augmented intelligence, and sensory devices.
Moreover, advancements in robotics, the digital world, data explosion, increase computing power, and advanced machine algorithms are laying the ground for the basis human-level intelligence platform.
While this may seem like a fantasy, AGI is not a far-fetched idea. Whether it benefits humankind or not is a matter of speculation. It will undoubtedly lead to great change and reshape the world. In a decade or so, we will experience the new normal of AGI.
Achieving a human-like level of intelligence may be a reality in the next decades or so. If we can control and harness the potential of AGI, we can create a world that we can enjoy. If used and developed constructively, it can be a super tool to make life on earth better.
Strong AI holds a much higher significance and importance than what you’ve read in this article. It will continue to grow in the coming future. We are just starting to scratch the surface of what this technology can do, and there is no telling what amazing things we will see in the future.
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