Deep Learning Dictionary - Lightweight Crash Course

Narrow AI vs Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - Deep Learning Dictionary

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence that is inhabited by a machine, rather than by a natural biological life form. The different subfields of AI make use of various types of learning algorithms to get machines to complete many different types of tasks.

In the broadest sense, AI can be broken down into two categories based on the types of task a given artificially intelligent machine or agent can do. These two categories are narrow AI and artificial general intelligence, otherwise known as AGI.

Narrow AI is AI that is focused only on a narrow subject or task.

For example, the narrow AI involved with auto-tagging photos on social media may just have the task of accurately tagging photos of people. It has the goal to maximize the probability that the tag it applies to a photo is correct.

For self-driving cars, generally speaking, we can think about the narrow AI as having the task of safely driving the vehicle from point A to point B. This is an oversimplification, but still the task is considered narrow. The self-driving car is not trying to safely drive at the same time as trying to come up with the recipe for the best donut.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), on the other hand, is an AI system that is able to understand and learn to do any intellectual task that a human can.

So, an AGI self-driving car would be able to safely drive you around, develop the recipe for the best donut, accurately predict the weather, be your physical trainer, have deep and meaningful conversations, diagnose and treat cancer, etc. Throw robotics into the mix as well, and we're in for a totally new world!

Currently, all AI agents in the world are considered narrow AI. While AGI is an active area of research, it has not yet been solved. Once it is, our world as we currently know it will be forever changed.