SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has claimed that artificial superintelligence (ASI) could become a reality within the next decade.
Speaking at SoftBank's annual shareholders meeting in Tokyo on June 21, Son painted a picture of a future in which AI could far surpass human intelligence and revolutionize our lives. Son claimed that by 2030, AI could be “1 to 10 times smarter than humans,” and by 2035, it could reach an astonishing “10,000 times” human intelligence.
The SoftBank CEO made a clear distinction between artificial general intelligence (AGI) and ASI: according to Son, AGI is the equivalent of a human “genius” and can be up to 10 times more capable than the average human, while ASI is in a league of its own, capable of exceeding human potential by 10,000 times.
Son's prediction aligns with the goals of Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), a company founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever along with Daniel Levy and Daniel Gross. As stated on the company's website, SSI's mission is to “jointly address safety and functionality as technical problems to be solved through innovative engineering and scientific breakthroughs.”
The timing of these announcements highlights the growing interest in superintelligent AI within the tech industry. While SoftBank appears to be prioritizing the development of ASI, SSI has emphasized the importance of safety in this effort. “We plan to evolve our capabilities as quickly as possible while always keeping safety as our number one priority,” SSI's founder said.
It is worth noting that the scientific community has yet to reach a consensus on the feasibility or capabilities of AGI or ASI: current AI systems are impressive in certain domains, but they are still a long way from achieving human-level reasoning in all domains.
Son's speech took an unexpectedly personal turn when he linked the development of ASI to his own sense of mission and views on life and death: “What was SoftBank founded for? What was Masayoshi Son born for? It may sound strange, but I believe I was born to realize ASI. I am very serious about it,” Son declared.
Son's prediction, SoftBank's apparent shift toward ASI development, and the founding of SSI raise important questions about the future of AI and its potential impact on society. While the promise of superintelligent AI is enticing, it also raises concerns about job losses, ethical considerations, and the potential risks associated with creating intelligence that far exceeds human intelligence.
It remains to be seen whether Son's vision for ASI within the next decade is prescient or overly optimistic, but one thing is certain: the race toward superintelligent AI is intensifying, with major companies at the forefront.
reference: Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms GPT-4o in most benchmarks
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