We missed adding the current “version” of A.I. to our Future Bucket List, but we are going ahead and adding two related entries on what a Future A.I. might look like.
Both of these Future items were envisioned well before the present “A.I. boom” and should have been on the list already:
The Singularity is a long-predicted hypothetical result of the continual Moore’s Law-driven advance of technology in general and A.I. in specific. Building on itself, A.I. gets so smart that it greatly surpasses human capabilities, with “unpredictable results.” Long-time proponent Ray Kurzweil theorizes that part of those results is the merger of humans with A.I.-based machines. In his 2005 book “The Singularity is Near,” Kurzweil even predicts a Singularity date: 2045.
As 2025 is now in the rear-view mirror, we should be half way there already. We’re more than a bit skeptical, but are adding the Singularity to our Future Bucket List.
Artificial General Intelligence (A.G.I.), also a hypothetical result of A.I. advancement, can be thought of as a big step towards the Singularity. As with the Singularity, definitions vary, but essentially it’s when A.I. is as smart as (or usually much smarter than) humans in every respect. No hallucinations, for instance. As with the Singularity (and different from many of the items on our Future Bucket List), we may not know when A.G.I. is here. But we’re adding it to the list just the same.
