The Artificial Intelligence (AI) we know and to which we have almost become accustomed is a tool with pinpoint accuracy, although still confined to a specific purpose. These “silicon oracles” help us efficiently and quickly predict the weather or write an email, but they completely lack intention. Addressing this shortcoming is precisely the idea that cutting-edge laboratories are now pursuing, known as General Artificial Intelligence (GAI).
The goal is no longer an obedient automaton, but the spark of fluid reasoning; a synthetic mind capable of learning, reasoning and adapting to domains for which we never programmed it. This would no longer be an incremental advance, but a paradigm shift. It is an ambition that giants such as OpenAI, Google — through DeepMind — and Meta are already betting on for the future.
The associated promises border on the utopian, almost the theological. There is talk of an AGI capable of eradicating diseases by modelling proteins at previously unimaginable speeds; or of solving the climate crisis by optimising every watt of energy on the planet; or of unravelling the mysteries of quantum physics. In essence, it is shaping up to be the promise of a true intellectual partner, one that not only responds, but also proposes.
However, the abyss is staring back at us. The construction of an intelligence superior to that of humans raises ethical dilemmas. How can we ensure that a mind operating at a speed and complexity incomprehensible to us remains aligned with human values? And another even more disturbing question: which human values? Who knows if what we are doing is creating a power to solve all our problems, or turning it into the ultimate problem we face.
AGI is currently more of a theoretical proposition than a reality. However, given the speed at which AI is evolving and how quickly it has become integrated into our lives, it may arrive much sooner than we are prepared to believe.
By Manolo Barberá, senior hydraulic modeller in the Architecture Department at Amusement Logic.
