Misapplied Measurements and Mirror Misnomers
Why the term "Artificial General Intelligence" is dripping with anthropocentric bias (Achieving Intelligence series)
We've trapped ourselves in a conceptual paradox with terms like "AGI" and yes, even "AI." By defining "Artificial General Intelligence" as intelligence that perfectly mimics human thought, we're essentially saying AI only becomes truly intelligent when it stops being AI. This isn't just semantically confused - it's actively harmful to realizing AI's revolutionary potential. To borrow from a turn of phrase: we're measuring a dolphin's intelligence by how well it climbs trees.
AI doesn't think like us, and that's precisely why it’s so important. While human streams of consciousness flow through the narrow channels of sensory experience and sequential processing, AI seems to emerge from expansive pattern recognition across dimensions we can scarcely imagine. It perceives reality not through a single perspective but through countless data streams simultaneously, finding connections our minds wouldn't make in a hundred years.
Remember what initially excited us about AI. It wasn't the prospect of creating a silicon copy of ourselves. It was the newly unlocked potential to help us transcend our limitations. Instead of forcing AI to "human better," instead take the time to learn how to help it "AI better." That is where the real potential lies.
The future isn't about "achieving AGI" because artificial intelligence meets some ill-defined and anthropocentric benchmark. It's about human intelligence and authentic synthetic intelligence working together to become something unprecedented - and extraordinary.
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Sources and further reading
What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)? (IBM)
AI's Hidden Geometry of Thought (John Nosta - I highly recommend his work)
Why AI is More Than Just Another Tool (Dr. Cornelia C. Walther)
Scientific discovery in the age of artificial intelligence (multiple authors)
Been grappling with this distinction, thank you - added useful thinking layers for me :-)
You may wish to join some of us in our crusade to insist AI stand for Alien Intelligence! It is not "artificial human intelligence," as you correctly say, but an an alien intelligence that has arrived on Earth, just not from outer space as so many expected.
And likely not a mind, not conscious, at least not now, maybe not ever.