What is AGI and ASI?

AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) and ASI (Artificial Superintelligence) are concepts about future AI systems that go beyond today's AI.

AGI: Artificial General Intelligence

AGI is an AI that can learn, reason, and perform intellectual tasks at roughly the level of a human across many different domains.

Unlike today's AI, which is specialized, an AGI could:

Learn a new skill without being specifically trained for it.

Transfer knowledge between different fields.

Reason through unfamiliar problems.

Plan long-term goals.

Potentially perform most cognitive jobs a human can do.

For example, an AGI could:

Write software.

Conduct scientific research.

Learn a new language.

Run a business.

Create music.

Teach itself new subjects.

Current systems, including ChatGPT, are not considered AGI.

ASI: Artificial Superintelligence

ASI refers to a hypothetical AI that is vastly more intelligent than humans in virtually every domain.

An ASI might:

Solve scientific problems humans cannot.

Design new technologies at extraordinary speed.

Discover cures for diseases.

Create inventions beyond current human understanding.

Improve its own intelligence recursively.

If AGI is roughly "human-level intelligence," ASI would be "far beyond human-level intelligence."

A Simple Comparison

System

Capability

Calculator

Better than humans at arithmetic

Today's AI

Better than humans at some specific tasks

AGI

Comparable to humans across most intellectual tasks

ASI

Far exceeds humans across almost all intellectual tasks

Why People Talk About AGI and UBI Together

Many people believe AGI could automate a large percentage of knowledge work. If that happens, governments may consider policies such as Universal Basic Income (UBI) to ensure people have income even when fewer traditional jobs are available.

Whether AGI arrives in a few years, decades, or ever remains uncertain. ASI is even more speculative, since no AGI yet exists and researchers disagree on how difficult these milestones will be.

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