AGI: will it kill us or save us?

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) could be humanity’s greatest invention ... or our biggest risk. In this episode of TechFirst, I talk with Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO and founder of SingularityNET, about the future of AGI, the possibility of superintelligence, and what happens when machines think beyond human programming. We cover: • Is AGI inevitable? How soon will it arrive? • Will AGI kill us … or save us? • Why decentralization and blockchain could make AGI safer • How large language models (LLMs) fit into the path toward AGI • The risks of an AGI arms race between the U.S. and China • Why Ben Goertzel created Meta, a new AGI programming language 📌 Topics include AI safety, decentralized AI, blockchain for AI, LLMs, reasoning engines, superintelligence timelines, and the role of governments and corporations in shaping the future of AI. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 – Intro: Will AGI kill us or save us? 01:02 – Ben Goertzel in Istanbul & the Beneficial AGI Conference 02:47 – Is AGI inevitable? 05:08 – Defining AGI: generalization beyond programming 07:15 – Emotions, agency, and artificial minds 08:47 – The AGI arms race: US vs. China vs. decentralization 13:09 – Risks of narrow or bounded AGI 15:27 – Decentralization and open-source as safeguards 18:21 – Can LLMs become AGI? 20:18 – Using LLMs as reasoning guides 21:55 – Hybrid models: LLMs plus reasoning engines 23:22 – Hallucination: humans vs. machines 25:26 – How LLMs accelerate AI research 26:55 – How close are we to AGI? 28:18 – Why Goertzel built a new AGI language (Meta) 29:43 – Meta: from AI coding to smart contracts 30:06 – Closing thoughts