When will humanity achieve singularity?
Can artificial intelligence be democratized?
Has Google’s Artificial Intelligence gained awareness?
There is at least one expert who believes that “the singularity” – the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human control – could be just a few years away. This is a much shorter time frame than current predictions for AI dominance, especially considering that AI dominance is not exactly guaranteed.
Ben Goertzel, CEO of SingularityNET – PhD from Temple University and leader of Humanity + and the Artificial General Intelligence Society – told Decrypt that he believes artificial general intelligence (AGI) is between three and eight years away. AGI is the term for AI capable of performing tasks as well as humans, and is a prerequisite for the soon-to-come singularity.
Believe it or not, there is no sign that the AI momentum is going to slow down anytime soon. Large language models from companies like Meta and OpenAI, along with the AGI approach of Elon Musk’s xAI, are pushing hard toward AI growth.
“These systems have greatly increased the world’s enthusiasm for AGI,” Goertzel told Decrypt, “so there will be more resources, both money and just human energy, which will encourage a lot of smart young people who want to immerse themselves in the world of work and work in AGI”.
When the concept of AI first emerged – as early as the 1950s – Goertzel says its development was driven by the US military and was seen primarily as a potential national defense tool. Recently, however, progress in this field has been driven by a variety of drivers with a variety of motives. “Now the ‘why’ is to make money for companies,” he says, “but also, interestingly, for artists or musicians, it gives them cool tools to work with and experiment with.”
Getting to the singularity, however, will require a significant leap from the current point of AI development. While today’s AI tends to focus on specific tasks, the push toward AGI aims to give the technology a more human-like understanding of the world and expand its capabilities. As AI expands its knowledge, it is getting closer to artificial intelligence, which some say is one step away from the singularity.
The technology is not there yet and some experts warn that we are much further away than we think, if we ever get there. But the search is on. Musk, for example, created xAI in the summer of 2023 and just launched the Grok chatbot to “help humanity in its quest for understanding and knowledge,” according to Reuters. Musk also called AI “the most disruptive force in history.”
With many of the most influential tech giants – Google, Meta and Musk – pursuing the advancement of AI, the rise of AGI may be closer than it seems. Only time will tell if we will get there, and if the singularity will come later.
