Lesson 7 of 2116
Narrow, General, AGI, ASI: What We Mean and Why It Matters
The terminology ladder of AI capability is loaded. Clarify your definitions and you clarify your whole view of the field.
Lesson map
What this lesson covers
Learning path
The main moves in order
- 1Why Definitions Are Political
- 2AGI
- 3ASI
- 4narrow AI
Concept cluster
Terms to connect while reading
Section 1
Why Definitions Are Political
If a CEO says their product is AGI, they are simultaneously making a scientific claim, a marketing claim, and often a trigger for contractual clauses with investors. Definitions are not neutral. Pin yours down before you use the words.
The classical ladder
Compare the options
| Level | Working definition |
|---|---|
| Narrow AI (ANI) | Performs a specific task, sometimes superhumanly |
| General AI (AGI) | Matches human-level performance across most cognitive tasks |
| Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) | Vastly exceeds human performance across all domains |
Google DeepMind's Levels of AGI
A 2023 paper by Morris et al. at DeepMind proposed a two-axis framework: performance (from emerging to superhuman) and generality (narrow vs general). This escapes the binary trap and lets you ask, how general, how competent, and at what percentile of humans.
- Level 0: No AI
- Level 1: Emerging (equal to or better than unskilled human)
- Level 2: Competent (50th percentile of skilled adults)
- Level 3: Expert (90th percentile)
- Level 4: Virtuoso (99th percentile)
- Level 5: Superhuman (outperforms 100 percent)
Why the AGI term is contested
- 1No agreed benchmark means anyone can claim it
- 2The label can trigger contracts and IPO milestones
- 3Different stakeholders prefer different goalposts
- 4Anthropomorphizing leads to bad policy decisions
- 5Emergent capabilities blur thresholds further
Alternative framings worth knowing
Compare the options
| Framing | Core concept |
|---|---|
| Transformative AI | AI that triggers changes of industrial revolution scale |
| Human-level AI | Performs any cognitive task humans can do |
| Automated AI researcher | Can itself do the work of an AI researcher (recursive) |
| AGI as economic test | Can do 50 percent of remote work as cheaply as a human |
Implications for your thinking
- Whenever you see AGI, ask whose definition
- Benchmarks should be paired with generality claims
- Short timelines and long timelines both have credible defenders
- Plan products for a range of outcomes, not a point estimate
“AGI is the horizon — it keeps receding as you approach it.”
Key terms in this lesson
The big idea: intelligence is multidimensional, and the AGI label collapses too much nuance. Use multi-axis frameworks and be explicit about what you are measuring.
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