Euroviews. This is everything you need to know about artificial general intelligence

The year is 2024, and AI is all around us. From Nvidia, an AI software company that has become America’s third-most valuable firm with its new AI chip, to advanced breast cancer screening, AI is seeping into all facets of modern life.

This is an incredibly exciting time for humanity as we push the boundaries of what has already been done and explore where AI can take us next.

But what is the next stage? Many experts believe there will be a tipping point, where we will create a "technological singularity".

This is the moment when computers can outsmart humans, meaning there will be new opportunities, as well as risks, for society.

This is also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), a term popularised by Dr Ben Goertzel. Goertzel believes this could happen as early as 2027 due to the current rate of progress within the market, so it won’t be long before we see this new era come to fruition.

Unlike the narrow AI we are using in the industry at the moment, AGI will have the ability to take knowledge from one setting and apply it to others in a way that much closer mimics human behaviour.

As such, the emergence of AGI promises to be transformative for society at large. In fact, if we truly consider the wide-ranging applications of AGI, it has the potential to be one of the best things that has ever happened to society.

But how close are we, and what does this mean for humanity as a whole?

Currently, scientists are exploring a wide variety of methods to develop AGI, as there is no set way we will see this enter society. Different organisations and individuals have different techniques, and there is no real right or wrong, it will just be about who can create this first.

One approach focuses on the cognitive level, which