Why All the Buzz About AGI? And What Is It Anyway?

In the three years since ChatGPT’s release, tech companies in the US and China have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in data centers, chips and talent to outdo each other in building more sophisticated artificial intelligence models. Increasingly, the stated goal is not just better AI, but a more powerful technology often referred to as AGI.

Once regarded as a fringe idea, AGI, or artificial general intelligence, has become a rallying cry for leading AI labs. It guides research roadmaps, marketing materials and policy debates, with some US lawmakers and AI leaders worrying about the national security implications if ...