OpenAI Claims New Age of Super-Smart AI Has Begun—But Experts Aren't Convinced
OpenAI's leader says artificial intelligence has reached AGI—a level where computers work independently and outperform humans. But scientists and AI experts say the term is so vague it's almost meaningless, and question whether this is genuine progress or clever marketing.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced this week that a new era has begun: the age of AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence. In simple terms, AGI means computer systems that can work on their own across many different tasks and perform better than humans at those tasks.
But here's where it gets complicated. Experts at Dutch universities and AI research centers say nobody actually agrees on what AGI means. The term has existed for decades, and over time, different people have added different definitions to it. Some think AGI means AI that has human-like qualities—like consciousness or desires. Others focus purely on performance. Because the definition keeps changing, scientists say the term has become almost meaningless. When OpenAI's leader Greg Brockman was asked to explain exactly what makes this the AGI era, he called it "a spiritual concept"—basically, a feeling rather than something you can prove.
Experts worry this language serves another purpose: marketing. By announcing that AGI has arrived, OpenAI gets people talking—some excited, some fearful. Either way, the company stays in the headlines. And when people hear "AI that outperforms humans," it sounds impressive, even if nobody can clearly define what that means. Meanwhile, some in the AI industry may genuinely believe they're creating super-intelligent machines. But in mainstream science, AGI is not taken very seriously. The gap between what AI companies claim and what actual scientists accept is growing wider.
Original source: NOS Nieuws Tech