korrents

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The term “AGI” is almost useless at this point

Helen Toner · 6 Apr 2026 · helentoner.substack.com ↗

2 korrents from this piece

Helen Toner did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    AI capabilities are jagged rather than smooth, so the different definitions of human-level AI will be met years apart rather than together.

    Their wordsThis makes it likely that there could be big gaps between when different definitions of AGI are fulfilled.
    Interesting

  2. Our reading

    The term AGI has stopped being useful: today's best systems already meet some people's definitions of it while falling far short of others'.

    Their wordsToday’s best AI systems are good enough that they’re now inside the fuzzy conceptual cloud of “AGI-ish”: that is, they’ve surpassed some people’s definitions of AGI, while falling well short of others’.
    Interesting