Is the AI race missing the real prize?

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In focus

• How the AI boom is overlooking bigger ideas
• Is Malaysia the next stop for self-driving delivery?
• A look back at OpenAI’s take on AGI

Hello reader,

There’s a particular kind of frustration in finally getting people to agree with you, only to realize they take your idea in a direction you didn’t expect.

Ben Goertzel has spent decades arguing for artificial general intelligence (AGI). Now that major AI labs are pursuing it, he thinks the commercial race is exploring too narrow a set of possibilities.

His explanation comes down partly to the risks investors are willing to take. They’re “open to market risks, but not to tech risks,” he said when I interviewed him for today’s top story.

In this piece, Goertzel explains what he believes today’s systems are missing and the alternative he’s trying to build.

His own tech still needs substantial oversight, he admits. But he believes eventually achieving AGI will depend on how fast AI systems can self-improve.

Goertzel says his agents read research papers, turn them into code, and use that code to improve themselves. His bet is that this ongoing process can move AI toward AGI faster than waiting months between training runs.

His optimistic target for AGI is 2028. That’s an ambitious timetable for showing what a different approach can achieve from someone frustrated with the industry’s direction.

Glenn Kaonang, journalist

Top Stories

1️⃣ AGI pioneer Ben Goertzel thinks the AI race is too narrow

Digital collage by Ulla, photo courtesy of SingularityNET

Many people are anxious about how AGI could change the world, from its impact on employment and education to wars. But for Goertzel, non-autonomous agents controlled by nasty, selfish people are scarier than autonomous agents.

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