OpenAI's president, Greg Brockman, recently suggested that its advanced model, known as GPT-6 Astra, could mark the arrival of something called artificial general intelligence, or AGI.
If AI itself is often defined as the ability to simulate human intelligence, OpenAI defines AGI as an AI system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work—to be better at the majority of digital and cognitive tasks a human can perform. This includes tasks such as writing computer code, organizational activities or managing projects.
For now, at least, it excludes work that involves physical labor, such as agriculture or construction. The integration of AI with robotics, though, means such sectors of industry may not be the exclusive domain of humans forever.
This definition by OpenAI focuses on breadth of competency by an AI system. However, other experts maintain that AGI will be characterized by additional cognitive leaps beyond present-day AI models. For example, Demis Hassabis, founder of Google DeepMind, has said that AGI should be able to do "pretty much any cognitive task that humans can do."
This definition makes AGI more about brilliance and a bit less about depth. Yann LeCun, former chief AI scientist at Meta, believes the term AGI itself is flawed and should be replaced by "human-level AI."
These represent snapshots from a vigorous ongoing debate over when AGI will arrive and how to recognize it.
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