Why The Current AI Is "Not Even Close" To AGI
(Part 3 of 3)
(Part 3 of 3)
In Part Two, I expanded on how lived experience is essential to what we consider our sentient human generalized intelligence and I introduced "chain-of-thought" advances in AI as STILL being inadequate. Below, I conclude my current viewpoint on the topic.
A Continuity Of Experience
When we got home from our San Francisco trip, my wife handed me a book from our little (big) home library: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Fascinated to have something written about the place I had just enjoyed so much, I dove in. What I was seeking was something NO AI system seeks, because AI systems DO NOT HAVE DESIRE - they DO NOT SEEK.
Now, let me put into words what it was like to read this book and how it related to me what lived experience means to being sentient.
Reading Cannery Row, felt like someone had brought me to a buffet of fine foods after I had subsisted on dry bread and water for years. You see, I have been stuck in the grind of non-fiction business books, self-help tomes, internet news pieces, and nonsensical social media posts for WAY too long. I didn't even realize how desirous I would be to keep reading this well-crafted great American author's work.
The more I read, the more ravenously hungry I was to KEEP reading. This book presents such a tasty flow of prose that NO AI BOT COULD EVER WRITE. There's too much going on that only the human animal could articulate this way.
You see what I did there? I drew an analogy about consuming fine literature in a way that resembles consuming delicious food. I spoke of being ravenously hungry for what would happen next in the book. I likened the storytelling to arriving at a buffet.
How on earth could an AI ever actually do that? It can't. Though it will trick a lot of people with its parroting of such experience.
At one point in the novel, Steinbeck introduces a character named Hazel, a simple fellow who struggles to organize his thoughts and keep pace in conversation with the much sharper character, Doc.
Notably, my own lived experience visiting the West Coast of California and walking the actual street of Cannery Row, smelling the smells, hearing the sounds, seeing the vistas... these all made then reading about the place SO much more richer. That Steinbeck could write as well as he did, shows us that he LIVED as well as he did.
Hazel picked a nobby purplish starfish from the bottom of the pool and popped it into his nearly full gunny sack. "I wonder what they do with them," he said.
"Do with what?" Doc asked.
"The starfish," said Hazel. "You sell ’em. You’ll send out a barrel of ’em. What do the guys do with ’em? You can’t eat ’em."
"They study them," said Doc patiently and he remembered that he had answered this question for Hazel dozens of times before. But Doc had one mental habit he could not get over. When anyone asked a question, Doc thought he wanted to know the answer. That was the way with Doc. He never asked unless he wanted to know and he could not conceive of the brain that would ask without wanting to know. But Hazel, who simply wanted to hear talk, had developed a system of making the answer to one question the basis of another. It kept conversation going.
"What do they find to study?" Hazel continued. "They’re just starfish. There’s millions of ’em around. I could get you a million of ’em."
"They’re complicated and interesting animals," Doc said a little defensively. "Besides, these are going to the Middle West to Northwestern University."
Hazel used his trick. "They got no starfish there?"
"They got no ocean there," said Doc.
"Oh!" said Hazel and he cast frantically about for a peg to hang a new question on. He hated to have a conversation die out like this. He wasn’t quick enough. While he was looking for a question Doc asked one. Hazel hated that, it meant casting about in his mind for an answer and casting about in Hazel’s mind was like wandering alone in a deserted museum. Hazel’s mind was choked with uncatalogued exhibits. He never forgot anything but he never bothered to arrange his memories. Everything was thrown together like fishing tackle in the bottom of a rowboat, hooks and sinkers and line and lures and gaffs all snarled up.
Hazel doesn't "search" his mind for a new question to ask Doc - he "casts" about for one. But his mind is not organized enough to produce that question quickly enough. Why?
Well, it's because he is the kind of person who allows his thoughts to remain in disarray - thrown together like fishing tackle tossed into a boat, snarled up and messy. That messiness comes from the human power to make choices or to simply leave things to chance.
We can choose to bring focus to our experiences and thoughts, or we can choose to drift along, ending up wherever the currents take us. It is that blend of intentionality and randomness that informs both our understanding and our creativity.
AI can't do that. It can only pretend to do that. As a consequence, it continues to lack the "generalized" intelligence it would need to grow up to become truly sentient.
At least, for now.
Bottom line is this - the LIVED experience. The sensory overwhelm. The anticipation of future. The regret of past. The memories of people and places we have stored away and the way the made us FEEL? Those combined are the stuff of Generalized Intelligence. Only when an AI system can be equipped with such inputs will it have sentience and a desire to build continuity to its 'life'. Only then, will we have something that approximates sentience or Artificial Generalized Intelligence
A Post-it Note On The Topic
Some time ago, I made the acquaintance of an English teacher who was aspiring to be a writer. I remember her saying to me "One day, I will write a great Canadian novel - I just need time to read more". And, in a moment of true clarity, I remember my exact perplexed response - I said: "no, you need to READ LESS, and LIVE MORE".
Until Artificial Intelligence systems can "live more" and "read less", they will remain mere cardboard cutouts of true intelligence - AGI is not here. It's not coming any time soon.
Thank you for enjoying this 3 Part Blog!
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