The Three Tiers of AI: Automating tomorrow with AGI, ASI & ANI

By now you’ve heard of AI, a technological change that may represent the most significant shift in both our business and personal lives of our (or any) generation. But did you know, not all AI is created equal?

One thing is for certain, AI has become ubiquitous with the technology industry, from boardrooms to factory floors, call center staff to advertising – the world’s leading firms are quickly adopting it into their processes including NetFlix and Google. It is, without doubt, the hot-button topic of our times from a technological, political and social perspective.

In the coming blog posts, we will run a series on AI, outlining what we have defined as the 3 “AI tiers” what they mean and how potentially how they will be adopted. Here is the rundown and brief opening to the technology:

AI: Artificial Intelligence

Loosely, AI is a branch of computer engineering designed to enable machines to act and think like humans. AI still is the overarching theme, however, in the past, AI stood alone able to encompass everything under one veil. As the goal posts have moved in terms of what is expected from AI, and that the technology has inevitably evolved, it has become necessary to have different definitions – some are outlined below – AGI, ASI, and ANI.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI):

Artificial General intelligence is the capability of a machine to perform the same intellectual tasks as a human to the same standard as humans. This line of AI is also known as “Strong AI” or “Human Level AI”.

In contrast to Narrow AI – AGI encompasses the general capabilities of humans, not specific narrow tasks.

There has been some debate about what intelligence actually is, and what AGI should actually represent. A wide consensus was formed around 6 core values for what human-level AI would be:

1. The ability to reason, solve problems, use strategy and make decisions under uncertainty.
2. Represent knowledge.
3. The ability to plan.
4. The capability to learn.
5. The ability to communicate in a natural language.
6. Integrate all of the above towards a common goal.

Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, has an interesting test for confirming AGI, dubbed The Coffee Test.

“A machine is required to enter an average American home and figure out how to make coffee: find the coffee machine, find the coffee, add water, find a mug, and brew the coffee by pushing the proper buttons.”

Artificial Superintelligence (ASI)

ASI is a super intelligent computer that can possess an intelligence that far surpasses that of the brightest and most gifted human minds. Researchers disagree on how this can be achieved (if it can be), with some arguing that AI development will result in reasoning systems that lack human limitations; others believe humans will evolve or directly modify ourselves to incorporate ASI and achieve radically improved cognitive and physical abilities.

In reality, ASI is not as far-fetched as you may think, an AI system with the capability to reprogram and improve itself infinitely, could, in theory, do so in a rapidly increasing cycle – resulting in an intelligence explosion that would not be limited by our own genetic restrictions.

Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)

Narrow AI is a specific type of Artificial Intelligence technology that will enable computers to outperform humans in some very narrowly defined task, unlike general intelligence – narrow intelligence focuses on a single subset of abilities and looks to make strides in that spectrum.

The most culturally relevant form of narrow AI is IBM’s Watson supercomputer, which won American TV show Jeopardy!. In essence, Watson is an expert “question answering” machine that uses AI technology to mimic the cognitive capabilities of humans. Narrow AI is still the most common form of AI technology used in industry, although typically they are less glamorous than Watson. Any software that uses machine learning or data mining to make decisions can generally be considered narrow AI. Narrow AI is known as “Weak AI”, whereas general intelligence is known as “Strong AI.”