Tech companies want to build artificial general intelligence. But who decides when AGI is attained?

Dr. Pei Wang teaches an artificial general intelligence class at Temple University in Philadelphia, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Mainstream AI research ‘turned away from the original vision of artificial intelligence, which at the beginning was pretty ambitious’, said Wang. — AP

There’s a race underway to build artificial general intelligence, a futuristic vision of machines that are as broadly smart as humans or at least can do many things as well as people can.

Achieving such a concept – commonly referred to as AGI – is the driving mission of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and a priority for the elite research wings of tech giants Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft.