Artificial General Intelligence

Artificial General Intelligence is the quest to build a machine intelligence that is generally intelligent, i.e., has open-ended problem solving ability and can solve problems the programmers never considered.

Specifically, the term denotes a machine of general problem-solving ability roughly equal to or greater than human beings. The term was popularized by AI researcher Ben Goertzel sometime around 2002. Later, it became the subject of an edited volume.

Routes to AGI
Proposed routes to AGI usually fall in one of three categories: top-down designs, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches. Around the year 2000, it was uncertain which approach would gain the most traction, but today, it seems clear that top-down designs are favored. The primary bottom-up approach, involving the use of genetic algorithms, has yielded scarce returns. Brain simulation approaches are well-funded, but generally these projects seem oriented towards learning more about the brain rather than building general problem-solvers.

Groups Claiming to Be Pursuing AGI

 * A2I2
 * AGI Research Institute
 * Machine Intelligence Research Institute (formerly Singularity Institute)