AI School › The big questions · Lesson 112 of 130

🌐 What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)?

AGI would be an AI able to learn anything like a person, but it does not exist yet.

Today's AIs are «specialists»: one plays chess like a champion but cannot make an omelette, another writes texts but cannot ride a bike. They are narrow, good at a single task. AGI, artificial general intelligence, would be different: a single mind able to jump from maths to cooking, from drawing to fixing a tap, learning new things on its own like you do every day. It is the dream (and the fear) of many researchers, but nobody has built it yet. Today it lives only in stories and in labs as an idea to study.

Why is it so hard? Because we humans learn from our body, our mistakes, our friends, boredom, curiosity: a thousand different sources. An AGI would need to combine all of this, and simply making it bigger or faster is not enough. Some think it will arrive in a few years, others in many decades, others believe it may never come in the form we imagine. The wise thing is not to be scared by sensational headlines and always ask: «Is this AI truly general, or just great at one thing?». Often the answer is the second one.

🎒 Try it in class (or at home)

List five things you can do in a normal day; for each ask whether today's AI could do it on its own.

← Lesson 111: Can AI be conscious? · Lesson 113: Superintelligence →

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