Over recent years, we’ve seen how AI technology can improve efficiency, data analysis, and overall productivity both in personal and professional settings.
Current AI tools have indeed reshaped how we view technology and its ability to supplement human expertise. However, the future of AI technology, like artificial superintelligence, will mark a complete paradigm shift to an environment where AI is superior to human intelligence.
In this article, we take a closer look at artificial superintelligence (ASI), how it differs from existing AI technology, and potential benefits and concerns to be aware of as this technology emerges.
What is artificial superintelligence (ASI)?
Artificial superintelligence (ASI) is a theoretical concept of AI technology that surpasses human intelligence. In theory, ASI is superior to humans in all aspects of intelligence, including problem solving, creativity, and social reasoning.
At this point, ASI is still conceptual, and there are no real-world examples of this technology in practice. ASI differs from the AI tools already in use today, which are narrowly focused on solving one specific task or being used in a particular context or application.
While existing AI tools already edge out humans in terms of data processing speeds, ASI is expected to have broad intelligence, deep cognition, and self-improvement capabilities that push it beyond what human intelligence is capable of.
Difference between AI, AGI, and ASI
How does ASI differ from AI and artificial general intelligence (AGI) tools? For starters, like ASI, AGI is still a theoretical form of AI that does not yet exist.
AGI represents a segment of AI tools that achieve parity with human intelligence, possessing reasoning and cognitive skills equivalent to humans. In terms of development, AGI will precede ASI.
In contrast, the narrow AI tools used today are proficient at a given task or workflow, but don’t have the power to tackle complex problems or tasks.
On a scale from least to most powerful, AI is at the lower end, AGI falls in the middle, and ASI is by far the most sophisticated.
Key characteristics of ASI
To more clearly define ASI and what it will be able to accomplish, here are some key characteristics of this developing technology:
- Superior cognitive abilities: ASI will be able to outperform humans in all aspects of intelligence, including comprehension, reasoning, and creativity.
- General intelligence: ASI’s intelligence won’t be restricted to just one domain or specialty, and will span across all areas.
- Self-improvement: In contrast to current AI tools, ASI will be able to iterate and improve its own code and design, leading to exponential growth in intelligence and capability.
- Unmatched speed: AI tools are already known for their data processing speeds, and ASI will take this even further, solving problems in seconds that would have taken a human expert years to do.
- Creativity and innovation: Existing AI platforms do not excel at creativity or generating novel ideas, though ASI will be able to consume and analyze even more data to come up with new ideas and innovations that the human mind could not.
Benefits of artificial superintelligence
As one can imagine, the development of technology that has superior intelligence to humans will bring about a new wave of innovation and management of the complex problems that humans have wrestled with. Let’s take a closer look at the potential benefits of ASI:
Scientific and medical breakthroughs
A promising application of ASI will be its ability to ingest and synthesize existing literature and academic research on the most challenging scientific problems humans face, including climate change, global health threats, and chronic diseases.
Through its analysis, ASI could identify never-before-seen connections and potential solutions to these issues, years ahead of when human experts could have done so.
This may include developing new treatments or prevention mechanisms for chronic diseases, advancements in clean technologies, or enhanced prediction of extreme weather events or pathogen outbreaks.
Improved resource management
Artificial superintelligence could help businesses, governments, and other organizations improve resource management and reduce waste.
These programs can monitor real-time data from both structured and unstructured data sources from around the world with ease. With this data, it can identity patterns with a high degree of accuracy, quickly spot outliers, and predict future outcomes, deciding how and where resources should be deployed in an instant.
Enhanced decision-making
ASI will be much better at reasoning and critical thinking compared to even the most expert humans in a given field or domain. It is also not subject to human emotion, bias, or memory loss, and as a result, ASI can make informed decisions with extreme accuracy and speed.
The potential applications of this decision-making skill are far-reaching, especially in scenarios where human cognition reaches its limit, like in a dangerous or high-stress situation or with highly sophisticated or multi-faceted problems.
Risks and concerns of ASI
The development of artificial superintelligence will mark a significant turning point in history, not just from a technological standpoint, but also regarding the role humans play in our environment and what the future of the species will look like.
As such, researchers have expressed concern about ASI development and the serious risks associated with this technology, despite the potential impressive benefits.
Existential risk
Some industry leaders have identified a real existential risk that may occur when AI meets or surpasses human intellectual capabilities. This milestone could put a large portion of the population out of work and completely alter the role we play in society.
In other words, there is a concern that superintelligent AI will replace humans and make our intelligence and overall existence obsolete.
In fact, in 2023, hundreds of prominent names in the field signed a one-sentence statement on this risk, which is as follows: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Ethical alignment
There is a real risk that ASI and humans will not share the same general goals or code of ethics. This disparity in motivations and value systems means that the ASI may act in ways that harm human wellbeing, and may even be catastrophic to mankind.
For example, maybe ASI is tasked with extending human lifespan and finds that nearly all risks come from regular human activities and interactions.
The solution it recommends may involve everyone living in individual pods, helping humans live longer, but they never get to leave the pod or come in contact with another person.
While this would help achieve the general goal the ASI is pursuing, it doesn’t take into consideration the value and pleasure that humans get from interacting with others and our environment.
Potential pathways to achieving ASI
There is some debate among experts regarding the exact timeline for achieving ASI. Some say that it could happen as soon as 2027, while others believe that 2040 is a more realistic possibility.
As mentioned above, ASI won’t emerge until after AGI has been achieved, which researchers are still pursuing. Thus, the potential pathway to attaining ASI is fluid while the reality of AGI remains on the horizon.
Researchers are exploring various methods to achieve AGI, like improving existing large language models (LLMs) until they become better and faster, ultimately meeting human intelligence. Alternative approaches include efforts to mimic the neural pathways in the human brain to train the system’s logic, knowledge storage, and pattern recognition at the same level as humans.
Either way, the path from AGI to ASI largely depends on the technology’s ability to improve its own code and systems, beyond what a human would be capable of doing. This stage unlocks exponential improvement in the technology and intelligence, marking the emergence of artificial superintelligence.
Streamline financial management with BILL’s AI
With BILL’s AI for finance, teams can streamline repetitive tasks and time-consuming workflows so they have more resources to spend on complex problems.
BILL has invested thoughtfully in AI for years, ensuring the platform is designed to help accountants and finance professionals work faster and more efficiently rather than bog them down with unnecessary tech.
The platform can streamline expense management, accelerate payments and invoicing, and strengthen fraud detection efforts.
Demo BILL today to get started!
Frequently asked questions
How does artificial superintelligence compare to the AI tools of today?
Artificial superintelligence (ASI) has not yet been achieved, and it still only exists in theory. However, by definition, ASI will be a more advanced and powerful form of technology compared to the AI tools that exist today.
What are some examples of ASI?
ASI is still a theoretical technology that does not yet exist. Thus, there are no real-world examples of the technology to highlight. Once ASI emerges, potential applications are far-reaching, as this technology is slated to be better than humans in all areas of intelligence, including wisdom, reasoning, and complex problem-solving.
