A Conversation with the AI Pioneer Who Coined ‘AGI’ — Dr. Ben Goertzel

AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser

What exactly is AGI—Artificial General Intelligence—and how close are we to achieving it? Will it transform the world for better or worse? And how can we even tell when true AGI has arrived?

In this episode of AI Curious, we sit down with Dr. Ben Goertzel, the iconic computer scientist who coined the term AGI more than 20 years ago. As the founder of SingularityNET and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, Ben has spent decades thinking about the architecture, risks, and potential of general intelligence.

We explore why today’s large language models (LLMs), while powerful, still fall short of true AGI—and what will be needed to bridge that gap. We dive into Ben’s prediction that AGI could arrive within just 1 to 3 years, and why he believes it will likely be decentralized. Along the way, we unpack some of the key ideas from his recent “10 Reckonings of AGI”—a candid look at the social, economic, and existential questions we must face as AGI reshapes human life.

Topics include:

• [00:04:00] What AGI really means vs. current LLMs
• [00:10:00] Are we reaching the limits of current AI architectures?
• [00:13:00] How will we know when AGI has truly arrived?
• [00:17:00] The “PhD test” for human-level AGI
• [00:19:00] AGI timeline predictions (1–3 years? 2029?)
• [00:29:00] The 10 Reckonings of AGI: key societal impacts
• [00:36:00] The gap between AGI and superintelligence
• [00:44:00] Why a decentralized AGI might be safer
• [00:51:00] Surprising upsides of a post-AGI world

If you’re curious about the future of artificial intelligence, this conversation offers a rare and unfiltered perspective from one of the field’s most original thinkers.

SingularityNet

https://singularitynet.io/

Ben Goertzel on X

https://x.com/bengoertzel

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