Ever since the invention of computers in the 1940s,
machines matching general human intelligence have been greatly anticipated.
In other words, a machine that possesses common sense and an effective ability to learn, reason,
and plan to meet complex information-processing challenges across a wide range of natural as
well as abstract domains, would qualify as having a human-level machine intelligence.
Currently, our machines are far inferior to humans in general intelligence. However, according to
philosopher Nick Bostrom at the University of Oxford, there are several pathways that could
lead to human-level intelligence in machines such as whole brain emulation, biological cognition,
artificial intelligence, human-machine interfaces, as well as networks and organizations.
Once this happens, it would only be a matter of time until superhuman-level machine intelligence,
or simply, superintelligence is unlocked. But what exactly do we mean by ‘superintelligence’?
And are there different forms of superintelligence that our A.I.s can attain in the future?
Let’s take a look at what Nick Bostrom has to say in this matter!
In his book, ‘Superintelligence’ Nick Bostrom defines the term ‘superintelligence’
“to refer to intellects that greatly outperform the best current human minds
across many very general cognitive domains.” So, a super-intelligent intellect, would in principle,
have the capacity to completely surpass the best human minds in practically every field,
including science, philosophy, arts, general wisdom, and even social skills.
But the path taken to get to superintelligence makes a big difference according to Bostrom.
For example, enhancements of biological or organizational intelligence might increase
our ability to anticipate risk and design machine superintelligence that is safe and beneficial.
But true superintelligence, as opposed to marginal increases in current levels of intelligence,
may possibly first be attained via the A.I. path. This is because paths such as biological cognitive
enhancements, and brain-machine interfaces would be relatively slow and gradual, resulting in, what
some call, weak forms of superintelligence. On the other hand, paths such as whole brain emulation,
and artificial intelligence would be a lot quicker in comparison resulting in, what some call,
strong superintelligence. Although the distinction between weak and strong forms of superintelligence
may not be quite clear-cut, Bostrom decomposes the notion of ‘superintelligence’ into three distinct
forms: speed superintelligence, collective superintelligence, and quality superintelligence.
He defines speed superintelligence as “a system that can do all that a human intellect can do,
but much faster.” So, a speed superintelligence is an intellect that is just like a human mind
but faster by many orders of magnitude. It is also perhaps the easiest form of superintelligence to
grasp conceptually. The second form, collective superintelligence, is defined as “a system
composed of a large number of smaller intellects such that the system’s overall performance across
many very general domains vastly outstrips that of any current cognitive system.” This form of
superintelligence is especially good at tasks that can be broken into parts and completed
simultaneously. The third, and final form, quality superintelligence, is defined as “a system that is
at least as fast as a human mind and vastly qualitatively smarter.” This can be better
understood by the analogy of the difference between the human mind and other animals.
Superintelligence in any of these forms could, over time, develop the technology necessary
to create any of the others. So, we say that the indirect reaches of these three forms of
superintelligence are therefore equal. However, the direct reaches of the three different forms
of superintelligence are harder to compare since there may be no definite ordering. Their
respective capabilities depend on the degree to which they embody their respective advantages.
For instance, how fast a speed superintelligence is, or, how qualitatively superior a quality
superintelligence is, and so on. At best, we might say that speed superintelligence excels at tasks
requiring the rapid execution of a long series of steps that must be performed sequentially
while collective superintelligence excels at tasks requiring the analytic decomposition
into parallelizable sub-tasks that demand the combination of many different perspectives
and skillsets. But, in some sense, quality superintelligence would be the most capable
form of all, since it could grasp and solve problems that are, for all practical purposes,
beyond the direct reach of speed superintelligence and collective superintelligence.
Whatever the case may be, humanity must proceed with caution since major existential risks would
be associated with such an intelligence explosion. And for some, A.I.s reaching superintelligence
is inevitable. So, we must make sure that we will have gained not only the technological proficiency
to set off an intelligence explosion but also the higher level of mastery that may be necessary to
make the detonation survivable. In his 1965 paper, mathematician Irving John Good wrote:
“Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual
activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual
activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then
unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion,” and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.
Thus, the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make,
provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.”
And these were some of the different forms of superintelligence as proposed by Nick Bostrom.
If you’d like to see more on what each of these forms of superintelligence would be capable of,
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