Zuckerberg’s AGI remarks follow trend of downplaying AI dangers

Enlarge / Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., during the Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, California, on September 27, 2023. (credit: Getty Images)

On Thursday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company is working on building "general intelligence" for AI assistants and "open sourcing it responsibly," and that Meta is bringing together its two major research groups (FAIR and GenAI) to make it happen.

"It's become clearer that the next generation of services requires building full general intelligence," Zuckerberg said in an Instagram Reel. "This technology is so important, and the opportunities are so great that we should open source and make it as widely available as we responsibly can so that everyone can benefit."

Notably, Zuckerberg did not specifically mention the phrase "artificial general intelligence" "AGI" by name in his announcement, but a report from The Verge seems to suggest he is steering in that direction. AGI is a somewhat nebulous term for a hypothetical technology that is equivalent to human intelligence in performing general tasks without the need for specific training. It's the stated goal of Meta competitor OpenAI, and one that many have feared might pose an existential threat to humanity or replace humans working intellectual jobs.