The AGI dilemma

Spooky and powerful, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), the planet’s newest technology, has divine benefits, as also diabolical applications that can trigger our destruction.

- ANITA PRATAP

This chilling warning comes not from the usual cabal of Luddites, Cassandras and doomsayers, but from Silicon Valley’s most influential tech titans: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and Center for AI Safety Director Dan Hendrycks. Their strategy for a safe world: “Any state’s aggressive bid for unilateral AI dominance is met with preventive sabotage by rivals.”

In their paper Superintelligence Strategy, published on March 5, the tech pioneers urge the US not to develop AI systems with “superhuman” intelligence, popularly called AGI. AGI equals, even beats, human cognitive capabilities, reaching the “point of singularity” when artificial intelligence irreversibly surpasses human intelligence. The co-authors warn that military or rogue use of AGI can unleash “catastrophe”. Quoting American physicist Herman Kahn, the co-authors say superintelligence strategy requires “thinking about the unthinkable”.