Lately, I’ve noticed something pretty interesting about how we use AI. It started off mostly as a tool to answer questions — like, “Why is a white shirt better than a black one on a sunny day?” It was about getting facts faster and easier, kind of like googling but with a chatty twist.
But these days, there’s a shift. Instead of just asking for facts, people are asking AI what to do. “What shirt should I wear today if it’s hot and sunny?” It’s a subtle difference, but it got me thinking: Are we changing what we mean by AGI — artificial general intelligence — without even realizing it?
Here’s the thing. When we stop doing the thinking ourselves and start asking AI to make decisions, who’s really thinking? It feels like we’re giving over some or even all of our mental workload to AI. If people aren’t thinking much anymore, does that mean AI is becoming the single thinker? And if so, does that mean we’ve already stepped into AGI territory, just from a different angle?
Take something like baking bread at high altitude. There are tons of little tweaks and tricks, and AI can offer advice that’s close, but not quite perfect. Yet, people treat those answers as the go-to knowledge. It’s like the AI answers become the default “general knowledge,” even when they’re not flawless.
So, could it be that by relying on AI for guidance, we’re effectively lowering the bar for what counts as AGI? Instead of waiting for AI to get smarter on its own, maybe the bar is changing because we’re leaning on it to do the heavy thinking. It’s a kind of convergence from above — AI doesn’t have to be perfect if humans are handing over the reins early.
I’m not an expert on AI—my background’s physics and economics—but this struck me while chatting with friends one morning over coffee. It’s a cool question: Are we blurring the lines between human and machine intelligence just by how we use AI?
What do you think? Are we inching toward AGI not just because AI is technically improving, but because we’re changing the game by letting it think for us? It’s food for thought, especially as AI becomes more part of daily life.
Let me know your take. Sometimes the best ideas come from a simple chat over coffee.