What is artificial general intelligence?

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the holy grail of AI research and development. What exactly does AGI mean, and how will we know when we’ve achieved it? On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down one of the most exciting (and terrifying) discussions happening in artificial intelligence right now: the race to build AGI, machines that don’t just mimic human thinking but match and then far surpass it. The idea of AGI is still a little hard to define. Some say it’s when a computer can accomplish any cognitive task a human can, others say it’s about transfer learning. Researchers have been predicting AGI’s arrival for decades, but lately, as new AI tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek become more and more powerful, there is a consensus that achieving true general intelligence in computers isn’t a matter of if, but when. And when it does arrive, they say it will transform almost everything about the way humans live their lives. But is society ready for the huge changes experts warn are only a few years away? What happens when the line between man and machine disappears altogether?

GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).

New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.