Artificial General Intelligence – Do the cost outweigh benefits?

AGI

“There is a thin domain of research that, while having ambitious goals of making progress towards human-level intelligence, is also sufficiently grounded in science and engineering methodologies to bring real progress in technology. That’s the sweet spot.” – Yann LeCun

Artificial Intelligence has evolved from simple algorithms to different areas and verticals. AI is applied in visual, functional, textual, and analytical applications.AI is part of different cloud vendor services where AI technology stacks and machine learning toolkits are available. In this article, we are looking at artificial general intelligence in detail.

Mind Map

Before we delve into cost and benefit analysis of AGI, let us look at what is AGI first:
Artificial General Intelligence is based on four key principles:

Essence of intelligence is thought i.e.., rational deliberation which is necessarily sequential
Ideal model of thought is logical inference based on concepts
Perceptions is at a lower level of thought
Intelligence is based on ontology

Computers with AGI can think, comprehend, learn, and apply AI techniques to solve real life challenges. AGI can handle unfamiliar problems. It is referred to as deep or strong AI. The capabilities of AGI are listed below:

Sensory perception
Fine motor skills
Natural Language Understanding
Natural Language Processing
Problem Solving
Social and Emotional Engagement

Now let us look at the benefits of AGI:

AGI can provide solutions to world’s problems related to health, hunger, and poverty.
AGI can automate processes and improve efficiencies in the companies.
Without manual supervision, AGI can execute tasks.

Singularity

AGI has problems and disadvantages as mentioned below:

Singularity can be the effect of AGI
AI can be destructive to mankind
It can be a weapon for human extinction
AGI can evolve without any rules or principles

Note: Singularity is a hypothetical point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in uncontrolled changes to mankind.

“The robot has some objective and pursues it brilliantly to the destruction of mankind. And it’s because it’s the wrong objective. It’s the old King Midas problem. We’ve got to get the right objective,” he explains, “and since we don’t seem to know how to program it, the right answer seems to be that the robot should learn – from interacting with and watching humans – what it is humans care about.” – Stuart Russell

“Golden Touch” myth is about the old King Midas Problem. King Midas, a rich and greedy king in Ancient Greece, acquired the ability to change all that he touched into gold. But hardly had he started that everything was transformed into gold, including his daughter. Golden Touch myth might not end up in the case of AGI. Solution for singularity is to develop a simulation tool to simulate AGI machine with different techniques. This simulation will help in predicting the AGI behaviour against mankind.

Simulation

Conclusion:

AI platforms are getting enhanced by adding AI services and predictive analytics for decision making similar to humans. AGI is becoming a new normal and in daily life, AGI will be performing human tasks in the form of RPA and other AI based platforms.

Bhagvan Kommadi

Bhagvan Kommadi Is the Founder of Architect Corner - an AI startup and is currently the Director of Product Engg at ValueMomentum. He has done his Masters in Industrial Systems Engg at Georgia Tech.