Intelligence Explosion

What Does Intelligence Explosion Mean?

“Intelligence explosion” is a term coined for describing the eventual results of work on general artificial intelligence, which theorizes that this work will lead to a singularity in artificial intelligence where an “artificial superintelligence” surpasses the capabilities of human cognition. In an intelligence explosion, there is the implication that self-replicating aspects of artificial intelligence will in some way take over decision-making from human handlers. The intelligence explosion concept is being applied to future scenarios in many ways.

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Techopedia Explains Intelligence Explosion

One of the first pioneers of researching an intelligence explosion scenario was I.J. Good, a British computer science and mathematics expert who worked on code-breaking in the Second World War for the Allied Powers, along with Alan Turing. In describing this intelligence explosion, Good pointed to the idea of recursive self-improvement, saying “an ultra-intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an intelligence explosion, and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.”

There is a general consensus that in order to prevent a harmful intelligence explosion, there must be a profound human exploration of aspects related to artificial intelligence development that would govern further attempts to refine and advance the field of artificial intelligence.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…