Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says ‘We’ve achieved AGI.’ But no one can agree on what AGI means.

Last week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made headlines when he told podcaster Lex Fridman that AGI—artificial general intelligence—had already been achieved.Recommended Video AGI has long been the ultimate goal of many artificial intelligence researchers. That’s been the case even though there is no universally accepted definition of the term. It generally means AI that is as intelligent as humans, but there is a fierce debate over exactly how to define and measure “intelligence.” In this case, Fridman had offered Huang a very unusual metric for AGI: Could AI start and grow a technology business to the point where it was worth $1 billion? Fridman asked if Huang thought AGI by this definition could be achieved within the next five to 20 years. Huang said he didn’t think that amount of time was necessary. “I think it’s now. I think we’ve achieved AGI,” he said. He then hedged, noting the company didn’t necessarily have to remain that valuable. “You said a billion,” Huang told Fridman, “and you didn’t say forever.” Few AI researchers agree with the definition of AGI that Fridman offered Huang, which was both more specific (a company worth $1 billion), but also more narrow than most AGI definitions (which tend to refer to matching a vast range of human cognitive skills, not all of which might be needed to build a successful business.) But AI researchers also disagree with one another over what a better definition should be. The term remains stubbornly amorphous despite the fact tha...