What Is AGI? Why Scientists Finally Mapped Intelligence

(And Silicon Valley Won't Like It)

For years, “AGI” has been tech’s favourite moving goalpost. Every time AI gets better at something, we shift the definition. Can’t be AGI if a computer does it, right?

A new paper from researchers including Dan Hendrycks, Dawn Song, and Yoshua Bengio changes this. They’ve created the first systematic definition of Artificial General Intelligence, grounded in a century of cognitive science. And the results are uncomfortable.

The Framework

The researchers used Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory, the most empirically validated model of human intelligence, to break down cognition into 10 measurable domains:

• General Knowledge

• Reading and Writing

• Mathematical Ability

• On-the-Spot Reasoning

• Working Memory

• Long-Term Memory Storage

• Long-Term Memory Retrieval

• Visual Processing

• Auditory Processing

• Speed

Each domain gets 10% weighting. Hit 100%, you’ve matched a well-educated adult’s cognitive versatility and proficiency. That’s AGI.