Why AGI could not be (just) a tool: goals, life, and general intelligence

Micah Lott*, William Hasselberger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

It is widely believed that AGI has the potential to be a wonderful tool that humans can use to meet our needs, solve our problems, and improve our lives. Against this view, we argue that any entity with truly general, human-level intelligence would have the capacity to lead its own life, with its own purposes and integrated hierarchy of goals. And thus any true AGI could not be merely a tool, even if it turned out to be extremely helpful for human beings. If we are correct, there is a dilemma at the heart of the ambition to build AGI as a valuable tool. On the one hand, any mere tool that we might build would lack capacities essential to the kind of general intelligence exhibited by human beings; it would not be genuine AGI. On the other hand, were we to create genuine AGI, then what we would have created would not be a mere tool, but something more. In this paper, we make the case for this dilemma. In so doing, we illuminate the connections between a set of core ideas: intelligence, agency, tools, and life.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages26
JournalInquiry (United Kingdom)
DOIs
Publication statusAccepted/In press - Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Goals
  • Life
  • Teleology
  • Tools

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  • CIEP: Research Centre of the Institute for Political Studies

    Alves, A. A. (PI), Mateus, A. (Full Professor), Azevedo, A. (Student), Leitão, T. C. (Invited Assistant Professor), Duarte, A. R. (Other career/Public sector), Ramos, A. F. (Other career/Public sector), Garschagen, B. (Student), Pacatolo, C. (Student), Almeida, C. M. D. (Invited Assistant Professor), Cabrita, C. (Private Sector), Silva, D. (Scholarship holder), Correia, E. P. (Private Sector), Gonçalves, F. J. (Private Sector), Garcia, F. P. (Invited Associate Professor), Ribeiro, G. M. (Professor non-higher education), Varajidás, H. (Private Sector), Chelo, H. (Assistant Professor), Correia, I. (Private Sector), Gregório, I. (Research Assistant), Moreira, I. (Invited Assistant Professor), Câmara, J. B. (Student), Espada, J. C. (Full Professor), Coutinho, J. P. (Assistant Professor), André, J. G. (Assistant Professor), Moreira, J. M. (Full Professor), Castello Branco, J. T. (Invited Assistant Professor), Quintino, K. H. (Student), Pinto, L. V. (Other career/Public sector), Cruz, M. B. D. (Full Professor), Gambôa, E. (Invited Assistant Professor), Barroso, L. D. (Student), Franco, L. (Assistant Professor), Mendonça, M. (Assistant Professor), Morgado, M. (Assistant Professor), Dias, M. (Assistant Professor), Amado, N. M. (Private Sector), Sampaio, N. (Invited Assistant Professor), Samões, O. (Assistant Professor), Ferro, P. (Private Sector), Moreira, P. (Private Sector), Duque, R. (Invited Assistant Professor), Brito, R. (Assistant Teacher), Mangerona, S. (Private Sector), Cajarabille, V. (Other career/Public sector), Hasselberger, W. (Assistant Professor) & Ribeiro, S. (Invited Assistant Professor)

    1/01/20 → 31/12/24

    Project: Research

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