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What Is Artificial Super Intelligence?
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paulroetzer
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Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) represents the hypothetical future of AI, where machine intelligence would vastly surpass human cognitive abilities in virtually every domain. While the current state of AI is limited to narrow applications, the development of ASI could lead to transformative breakthroughs in science and technology, potentially solving many of humanity's greatest challenges.
Defining ASI Capabilities
ASI would exhibit superhuman problem-solving, creativity, and emotional intelligence across all domains.1 It could potentially make groundbreaking scientific discoveries, solve complex global challenges, and dramatically accelerate technological progress.23 However, ASI also poses existential risks if not developed carefully, as its recursive self-improvement capabilities could lead to an "intelligence explosion" resulting in a system that is difficult to control or comprehend.45
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Organizations Pursuing ASI
Several major tech companies and AI research institutions are working on developing advanced AI capabilities that could eventually lead to ASI. OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, believe ASI could arrive this decade and are dedicating significant resources to ensure it is safe and beneficial.1 Google's DeepMind is considered one of the top labs pursuing artificial general intelligence (AGI) and beyond.2 Microsoft, through its partnership with OpenAI and its own research efforts, is also deploying cutting-edge AI across its products and services.3 Other notable organizations include Facebook's AI Research lab, Anthropic, and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute.456
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ASI vs. AGI

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ASI is envisioned to vastly surpass AGI and human intelligence in virtually every domain, including creativity, general wisdom, and problem-solving.1 While AGI aims to match human-level intelligence across a broad range of cognitive tasks, ASI would be exceedingly better than humans at everything.2 A key difference is that ASI is expected to have recursive self-improvement capabilities, allowing it to rapidly enhance its own intelligence to incomprehensible levels, potentially leading to an "intelligence explosion".3 Experts believe AGI could potentially be achieved in the coming decades, while the leap from AGI to ASI may happen very quickly after that.45
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Obstacles to Achieving ASI
Achieving ASI faces significant scientific and theoretical hurdles, including:
- Lack of a clear path from AGI to ASI, requiring fundamental breakthroughs to bridge the gap1
- Difficulty ensuring an ASI's goals and behaviors align with human values and remain safe and controlled23
- Limitations of current AI architectures and massive computational power and energy requirements to support ASI45
- Gaps in our scientific understanding of intelligence and consciousness in the human brain, making it challenging to recreate artificially3
- Unpredictability and potential instability of self-improving AI systems, which could behave in unexpected and destructive ways5
- Ethical and governance challenges around creating ASI, necessitating global coordination for responsible development35
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ASI Infrastructure
Developing the infrastructure to support ASI will require significant advancements in computing hardware, software architectures, and data management. ASI systems would need access to vast computational resources, likely utilizing specialized AI accelerators and distributed computing networks to handle the immense processing demands.14 Advanced memory and storage technologies will be essential to feed data to ASI algorithms efficiently.3 Innovations in high-speed interconnects and networking will enable seamless communication between ASI sub-components and external systems.1 Robust cybersecurity measures must be implemented to safeguard ASI from attacks or unintended interactions.25 Scalable software frameworks and programming paradigms will need to be created to interface with and control ASI capabilities.4 Techniques for visualizing and interpreting the inner workings of ASI will be crucial for transparency and oversight.2 Integrating ASI with sensors, robotics, and IoT devices can allow it to perceive and interact with the physical world.13 Ultimately, a comprehensive and resilient infrastructure ecosystem must be established to fully harness the potential of ASI while ensuring safety and reliability.245
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Leading ASI Thinkers
Some of the leading thinkers and experts on the topic of artificial super intelligence (ASI) include:
Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, who has written extensively about the potential risks and benefits of ASI in books like "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies".35 He argues ASI could pose an existential threat to humanity if not developed carefully.
Eliezer Yudkowsky, a researcher at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, who has been warning about the dangers of unaligned ASI for decades.3 He stresses the importance of developing "friendly AI" that is robustly aligned with human values.
Shane Legg, the co-founder of DeepMind, who predicts there is a 50% chance we will achieve human-level AI within a few years and that the transition from AGI to ASI could happen very rapidly.3 DeepMind is considered one of the leading labs pursuing AGI and ASI.
Ray Kurzweil, a futurist and director of engineering at Google, who predicts ASI will be achieved by 2045 in his concept of "the singularity".1 He believes ASI will enable us to transcend our biological limitations.
Stuart Russell, a computer science professor at UC Berkeley, who highlights the need to develop ASI with clear objectives that are aligned with human preferences in his book "Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control".24
These thinkers, among others, are playing a key role in shaping the discourse around the transformative potential and existential risks associated with the development of artificial super intelligence.12345
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Leading ASI Skeptics
Some of the leading detractors and skeptics of artificial super intelligence (ASI) include:
Steven Pinker, a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, who believes the idea of ASI is "not a cause for concern" and that the concept is more science fiction than a realistic prospect.1 He argues human-level AI is still a long way off and that we will have time to address potential risks.
Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at NYU, who has been critical of the hype around ASI and believes current AI systems are narrow and brittle.2 He argues we need to focus on developing more robust and generalizable AI before worrying about ASI.
Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta, who has dismissed concerns about ASI as "entertaining speculation" and believes AGI is still decades away.3 He argues we should focus on the societal impacts of narrow AI rather than far-future scenarios.
Oren Etzioni, the CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, who has called the notion of ASI a "distraction" from the real challenges facing AI development.4 He believes we need to prioritize making today's AI systems more transparent, accountable, and aligned with human values.
Melanie Mitchell, a computer science professor at the Santa Fe Institute, who has pushed back against the idea of an "intelligence explosion" leading to ASI.5 She argues intelligence is multi-dimensional and that the path from AGI to ASI is not straightforward or inevitable.
While these experts acknowledge the transformative potential of advanced AI, they are more skeptical about the feasibility and timeline of achieving ASI, and argue we should focus on nearer-term challenges posed by AI development.12345
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Related
what are the main criticisms of ASI from its detractors
how do detractors of ASI justify their negative views
are there any notable studies that highlight the drawbacks of ASI
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