Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is a hypothetical AI system that can understand, learn, and perform any intellectual task a human can, rather than excelling only at narrow, specific tasks.
Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, describes an AI system with human-level flexibility across essentially any cognitive task, able to reason, learn new skills, and transfer knowledge between domains the way a person can, rather than being limited to what it was specifically trained for. Every AI system in wide use today, including the most capable large language models, is considered narrow AI: highly capable at specific tasks, but without the general, flexible understanding AGI implies.
Today's most advanced models can write, code, and answer questions across many domains, which can look general on the surface. But they still lack reliable common-sense reasoning in novel situations, consistent long-term planning, and the ability to learn genuinely new skills the way a human does through a handful of real-world experiences, which is why most researchers don't consider current systems to be AGI.
There's no single agreed-upon definition or test for AGI, and predictions for when, or whether, it will be achieved vary enormously among AI researchers and lab leaders, ranging from a few years to many decades or longer. The term is also used inconsistently in public discussion, sometimes referring to any sufficiently capable AI system rather than the stricter definition of human-level general intelligence.
AGI is central to debates about AI safety and long-term risk, since a system with general, human-level or greater capability would have far broader impact and potential for both benefit and harm than today's narrow tools. Major AI labs frequently cite AGI, in some form, as their explicit long-term goal, which shapes significant research and safety investment across the industry.
In an interview on The Times Tech Podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussed the rapid pace of AI development, the impact of Chinese rival DeepSeek, and his push for massive US infrastructure projects.
Fidji Simo, who led OpenAI's work on artificial general intelligence (AGI), is leaving her full-time role to become a part-time advisor. This follows her medical leave due to a neuroimmune condition.
General Intuition, a startup backed by Jeff Bezos, believes gaming data could be key to achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI). Unlike current AI models, gaming data provides a rich source of information about how objects move and interact in the real world.
A new startup believes video game data could be better than the internet for training AI to understand the physical world. This approach might help AI learn how objects move and interact in space and time, a critical step toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).
A new research paper explores what comes after human-level AI, proposing a continuum from AGI to Universal AI. This could reshape society in ways we're only beginning to understand.