Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (previously Twitter), has projected that by next year, AI will most likely surpass human intelligence. The billionaire was replying to a video that showed podcaster Joe Rogan and “futurist” Ray Kurzweil debating when artificial intelligence (AI) will surpass human intelligence.
During the conversation, Kurzweil informed Rogan that artificial intelligence on par with human intelligence will exist by 2029. “We’re not quite there, but we’re getting there, and by 2029, it will fit everyone,” he stated. In actuality, people think I’m conservative. Many believe that will occur the following year or the year after.”
In response to the X debate footage, Elon Musk said, “Next year, AI will most likely surpass human intelligence.” AI will likely outsmart all humans combined by 2029.”
AGI: What Is It?
Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI, has gained popularity among tech executives across the globe in recent times due to the emergence of artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini. Though the word has yet to be defined, it’s usually understood to refer to the point at which an AI model develops the capabilities to carry out any task that a person can accomplish as well as or better than a human.
There is much debate, even among industry titans, regarding whether artificial general intelligence (AGI) will advance humanity or not, and whether it would be beneficial or detrimental. Let’s examine some of the opinions of several tech executives regarding AGI.
Yann LeCun of Meta on AGI
Yann LeCun of Meta: Earlier this year, in an interview with Time Magazine, Yann LeCun, Chief AI scientist of Meta, stated that the LLMs that now drive AI chatbots are not headed toward artificial intelligence (AGI). “If you train [LLMs] at scale, it’s amazing how they work, but it’s very limited,” he stated. As we can see now, those systems are delusional; they have a poor understanding of reality. They need a tonne of data to get to a level of intelligence that is ultimately not that high. Furthermore, they lack true reason. Other than what they have been taught, they are unable to plan. They therefore do not represent a path towards “AGI.” I detest the phrase. There’s no denying their usefulness. However, they do not lead to intellect comparable to that of humans.”
Sundar Pichai on AGI
In an interview with the New York Times, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, dismissed the discussion surrounding artificial intelligence (AGI) while stating that going forward, the present systems will be “very very capable.” “When is it A.G.I.?” he said. What’s that? What definition would you give it? When will we arrive at this location? Those are all excellent questions. However, it almost doesn’t matter to me because I can see how incredibly powerful these systems will be. Therefore, it practically makes no difference if you achieve artificial general intelligence (A.G.I.) or not; you’ll have systems that can both cause actual harm and offer benefits on a scale that has never been witnessed before. Can an artificial intelligence system spread misinformation on a large scale? Indeed. Is that A.G.I.? It is truly irrelevant.
Sam Altman on AGI
As one of the leading voices on the possible advantages of AGI for humanity, Sam Altman is the CEO and creator of OpenAI. “I think AGI will be the most powerful technology humanity has yet invented,” he stated in an interview with Time Magazine last year. If you consider the price of intellect and its equality, you will see that the price is declining, the quality is rising, and you will also see what individuals may do with it. It is a universe apart. For the first time, I believe we may begin to see what the world that science fiction has long promised us would look like.”
