AGI. Who cares.

In the vocabulary of artificial intelligence, AGI, short for Artificial General Intelligence, occupies a strange place. The word attracts as much as it irritates. It generally refers to a machine capable of learning a complex task without specific training, observing its environment, then adjusting its behavior. The short version: human intelligence simulated by a machine.

DeepMind and OpenAI publicly state that they are pursuing this direction. Yann LeCun, whom I had the good fortune to hear at a conference at Station F, considers the idea of imminent AGI unrealistic, even misleading. His argument can easily be expressed in one sentence. Discussing a technology that is still largely hypothetical today makes the conversation more confusing than useful.

The reference points are shifting nonetheless. What has long been presented as a technological pinnacle, sometimes with a Terminator-style threat, could end up looking like a milestone. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, takes this idea even further. That milestone could pass almost unnoticed.

Sam Altman describes AGI as less spectacular than expected

During a recent interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, reported by The Verge, Sam Altman played down the importance of AGI. He describes its arrival as a stage whose impact could be less visible than many imagine.

My intuition is that we will reach AGI sooner than most people think, but that it will matter much less, he said.

Altman explains that the arrival of AGI, often imagined as a historic turning point, could extend the acceleration already underway. In his view, the biggest change would come afterwards, with what he calls superintelligence: AI that would far exceed human capabilities.

He adds that the major security and ethical problems associated with AI would be concentrated more in the progression towards this superintelligence. They would become more serious as systems grow more capable. Between these two moments, Altman imagines a long phase of progress, with economic and social effects gradually taking hold.