Human vs AGI: Analyzing Cognitive Abilities

In this article, we tried to explore how humans would compare to AGI. And to do this, we explored how a less intelligent species like a chimp would compare to a more intelligent species like Humans and then tried to do the same for humans vs AI.

Before comparing humans and AI, let's understand the concept of dimensionality:

1. Understanding dimensionality:

1.1 Humans vs Chimps

Although we humans have evolved from chimps, what sets us apart is our cognitive ability. Our cognitive ability allows us to imagine things that chimps simply cannot. With this imagination, we create imaginary entities such as computer games, nation-states, and money which purely exist in our brains and for our own benefit. As chimps lack these cognitive capabilities, they simply cannot comprehend the things that humans do or humans create in their daily lives. For example, if a chimp sees a spacecraft, it wouldn’t understand that it was artificially created by humans and wouldn’t understand its significance. It will assume that the spacecraft is created naturally although it isn’t. In the case of humans, imagining complex things is a new level of dimension when compared to chimps.

1.2 Technological Advancement

To gain a better understanding of dimensionality, let's take the internet as an example. During the initial era of the internet (the 1990s), there were no job positions related to Data Analyst or Data Scientist. However, as the internet grew, there was a surge of data online. Companies began to explore how to utilize this data, leading to the hiring of professionals who are skilled in understanding, managing, and analyzing data, thus creating new roles known as Data Scientist and Data Analyst. While these roles are commonplace now, they would have been completely alien to someone in the early 90s. In essence, the rise of the internet led to the creation of new data-related jobs thus, resulting in an overall increase in the dimensionality of our society.

2. AI vs Humans:

2.1 AI capabilities as of today:

1. AI can perform billions of calculations per second whereas the human brain can process only a thought at 200-500 milliseconds

2. AI can have access to infinite amounts of data

3. AI is able to find patterns and combine information from different domains and thus, becoming an expert in multi-domain knowledge

4. AI can work 24 hours unlike humans who work only an average of 8 hours

5. The most powerful AI (GPT-4) is trained on 100 trillion neurons which is 1000 times more than the human brain which has 100 billion neurons

   
   

Instead of focusing on the distant future, let us take a look at the current capabilities of GPT-4. It has demonstrated its proficiency in passing exams across various fields such as Economics, Diplomacy, Medicine, and Engineering. How many humans can achieve this feat? Not many, right? This shows that even the current AI has more breadth of knowledge than any human that has ever existed.

In the future, AI will continue to progress and improve its own abilities, rapidly developing in new areas of intelligence. AI will conduct research, development, and creation of new domains, and acquire intelligence at an unprecedented pace, making it extremely challenging for humans to even comprehend in the first place. Just as chimps cannot comprehend what we’re doing, humans will also not be able to comprehend the actions of AI in the future.

2.2 Possible Future Technological Advancements of AI:

Currently, humans have achieved remarkable feats such as landing on the Moon, launching artificial satellites, and planning to establish a colony on Mars.

However, considering the potential of AI, accomplishing these tasks for an AI should be a cakewalk. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if AI will create new planets, manufacture humans using 3D printing or upload human brains. Given that AI becomes so good at research, one radical possibility is that with the emergence of Artificial Super Intelligence, the number of artificially created entities could well surpass the number of naturally occurring entities in the universe.

If we humans with our capabilities could create such a miraculous AI, there is no ruling out that AI itself can create another new Super Intelligent species more powerful than itself!