OpenAI thinks it knows how to build artificial general intelligence

We can still be mostly waiting for the smarter SiriBut OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes the company already knows how to create the Holy Grail of AI: artificial general intelligence (AGI).

AGI is a term that refers to an artificial intelligence system that can match or exceed human cognitive abilities in a wide range of areas – in other words, artificial intelligence that is at least as smart as us…

Altman made the announcement in a post on his website. personal blog.

We are now confident that we know how to create AGI in the traditional sense. We believe that in 2025, we could see the first AI agents “joining the workforce” and significantly changing companies’ output. We continue to believe that iteratively putting great tools into people’s hands leads to great, widespread results.

We begin to strive to achieve superintelligence in the true sense of the word. We love our current products, but we are here for a glorious future. Thanks to superintelligence, we can do anything. Superintelligent tools can greatly accelerate scientific discovery and innovation far beyond what we are capable of doing on our own, and in turn greatly increase abundance and prosperity.

Of course, knowing “how” is not the same as being able to, and Altman doesn’t say when that will be achieved, only that we should expect unspecified big breakthroughs within “the next few years.”

Now this sounds like science fiction, and even talking about it is a little crazy. No big deal – we’ve been there before and wouldn’t mind being there again. We are quite confident that in the next few years everyone will see what we see, and that the need to act with great caution while maximizing broad benefit and expanding opportunity is very important.

The post talks backwards as well as forwards, and Altman describes his unexpected firing.

A little over a year ago, one Friday, the main mistake that day was that I was unexpectedly fired during a video call, and then, right after we hung up, the board published a blog post about it. I was in a hotel room in Las Vegas. It was almost impossible to explain, as if a dream had gone wrong.

The public firing without warning marked the beginning of a really crazy few hours and a pretty crazy few days. “The Fog of War” was the weirdest part. None of us could get a satisfactory answer about what happened or why.

In my opinion, this entire event was a major failure of management by well-meaning people, including myself. Looking back, I certainly wish I had done things differently, and I would like to believe that I am a better and more thoughtful leader today than I was a year ago.

While Altman may be predicting real AI, we’re still (mostly) waiting for a smarter Siri. While some Apple Intelligence features have already enhanced the smart assistant’s capabilities, we don’t expect a fully conversational Siri to launch. no earlier than 2026.

Photo by the author Aydin Geranrekab on Unsplash