In a previous posting we mentioned there are two types of approaches to Artificial Intelligence. The first type of AI we looked at is called Narrow – or as we like to say, Focused AI.
Now let’s take a peak at the second type of AI, which is usually known as General.
Artificial General Intelligence:
Artificial General Intelligence is where a platform tries to undertake a task done by you or me. The machine would need to be capable of reason, make decisions, be able to learn, even have objective thinking. This of course is much wider than the limited, specific role that Focused AI undertakes. The platform would be capable of consuming data from any source, and in any format, making it essentially sentient. This part has however been contested. AI researcher and CEO of SingularityNET Ben Goertzel believes General AI is a synthetic intelligence that has a general scope and is good at generalization across various goals and contexts. On the other hand, the entreprenuer Peter Voss for example places human traits such as empathy as less important than being autonomous and goal-directed.
General Artificial Intelligence is also known as Strong AI. This term was first used by the philosopher John Sealer in a paper titled Mind, Brains and Programs. It is a theoretical approach. It will be years before it exists. Exactly when it may first appear is very much down to your own viewpoint; some predict General Artificial Intelligence to appear around 2030, whilst others believe it will be another 100 years before it becomes reality.
The point about General Artificial Intelligence is the sheer effort involved. It will take a huge amount of work to create a machine capable of performing to the same level as the human brain.
We’ll be back with Part three in this series about the difference types of Artificial Intelligence, this time looking at Super Artificial Intelligence.