Comment by Milton Mueller

Tech CEOs, futurists, and venture capitalists describe artificial general intelligence (AGI) as if it were an inevitable and ultimate goal for technology development. In reality, the term is a vague signifier for a technology that will somehow lead to endless abundance for humankind — and conveniently also a means to avoid accountability as tech moguls make off with billions in capital investment and, more alarmingly, public spending. AGI is a term that famously lacks a precise meaning, and certainly does not refer to any particular imminent technology. Definitions range broadly in ways that primarily suit the economic arrangements of the individuals and organizations ostensibly trying to create it, or the cultural mystique of a set of adherents to a set of fringe ideologies.