[Artificial] general intelligence, or AGI, [is] the stage at which computers can match or surpass human intelligence. … Prognosticators say we might get it before the decade is out, and it will change everything. The origin of that term, however, and how it was originally defined, is not so well-known.
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In 1997, Mark Gubrud was obsessed with nanotechnology and its perils. … His particular concern was how that technology, and other cutting-edge science, could be developed as dangerous weapons of war.
That same year, Gubrud submitted and presented a paper … called “Nanotechnology and International Security.” He argued that breakthrough technologies will … [make] them potentially more catastrophic than nuclear war. … The new sciences he discussed included nanotechnology, of course, but also advanced AI—which he referred to as, yep, “artificial general intelligence.”
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Gubrud can’t ignore the dissonance between his status and that of the lords of AGI. “It’s taking over the world, worth literally trillions of dollars,” he says. But Gubrud does have a legacy. He gave a name to AGI. … And his warnings about its dangers are still worth listening to.
