While some analysts believe human level AI is decades away, Google’s DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis is optimistic about achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), capable of surpassing human intelligence within the next 5 to 10 years.
While speaking at a London briefing, Hassabis expressed his caution but remains hopeful for the future of AGI network for human-level AI with the work underway and the incredible challenges still left to be tackled.
Hassabis acknowledged that while current AI systems are impressive, they are still far from reaching human level AI, calling them “passive,” excelling in narrow tasks but lacking general cognitive abilities of human intelligence. However, Hassabis predicts that within a decade, AI will exhibit more complex, human-like behavior.
“We’re not quite there yet. These systems are very impressive at certain things. But there are other things they can’t do yet, and we’ve still got quite a lot of research work to go before that,” said Hassabis.
AGI refers to a system capable of understanding and performing complex tasks, like reasoning and contextual awareness, similar to humans, making it vital step for when AI meets human intelligence.
AGI Network of Human-Level AI
The journey to human level AI is still full of obstacles, with current AI systems struggling to understand real-world context, ill-equipped to tackle hard, and hindered by real-world problems. Hassabis explained that achieving AGI networks for human-level AI needs combining high-level planning algorithms with world models that can allow AI to understand and interpret the world.
These advancements will create AI systems that can perform like humans in certain scenarios of uncertainty. Though human-like intelligence in AI remains vague, companies like OpenAI are working to measure and track progress toward this goal, and this was evident when the world witnesses OpenAI develops system to track progress toward human-level AI and track its development over time.
Despite the advancements, Hassabis cautioned AI should augment human intelligence not replace it, believing the AI research’s goal is to assist and provide tools to humans to solve challenging issues, not attempt to copy or surpass human thought.
How Far is AI From Reaching Human-Level Intelligence?
Human level AI will require massive advances in neural design and computational power. Advances in transfer learning, meta-learning, and quantum computing are critical to enable AI systems to generalize across tasks and improve by themselves. While technology advances, safety, transparency, and fairness ethical concerns need to be addressed.
Ensuring that AI on the human level is responsible to society will require strict monitoring and compliance with developing AI systems that align with human values and societal needs.
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