Over the past few months, many of us have experienced vivid hallucinations on how the singularity will transform our lives in ways we cannot anticipate. Amidst the whirlwind of predictions, there is one idea I hold with a sense of certainty: the possibility of engaging in a conversation with my cat.
Feliciia is a 7-year old indoor cat and I posit that I have til 2035 to see this happen. Perhaps our one-sided interactions could one day turn into a meaningful dialogue about - well whatever she gets up to during the course of a day.
The tweet above (sent on April Fool’s Day, US time) spurred me onto ChatGPT.
Could my pet evolve to be an AGI?
No, pets cannot evolve into artificial general intelligence (AGI) because AGI is a type of intelligence that is specifically designed and developed by humans through advanced technological means such as machine learning and artificial neural networks. Pets, on the other hand, are biological organisms that have evolved through natural selection over millions of years and do not possess the necessary cognitive abilities or physical structures to develop AGI. While some animals are capable of learning and exhibiting intelligent behaviors, they are still limited by their biology and cannot evolve to become AGI.
Could my cat develop its brain to display characteristics of AGI?
While cats are intelligent animals and have their own unique ways of processing information, their brains are not capable of supporting the kind of advanced cognitive abilities that AGI requires. AGI systems rely on complex algorithms and massive amounts of data to learn and process information, something that the brain of a cat cannot do. It's important to note that while animals like cats may not be capable of developing AGI, they do possess their own unique intelligence and abilities that humans can learn from and appreciate.
So if the only thing stopping a cat from exhibiting the ability to communicate with other species is the limitation of their brains’ throughput (I/O problem) and processing power, why not just add more GPUs?
What about a human’s brain?
It is theoretically possible for a human brain to develop AGI, but it would require significant advances in neuroscience, computing power, and artificial intelligence research. The human brain is a highly complex organ that is capable of processing vast amounts of information and performing a wide range of cognitive tasks, but current scientific understanding of the brain is still limited.
In addition, developing AGI would require creating algorithms and architectures that mimic the way the human brain processes information. While there have been some successful attempts to create artificial neural networks and other machine learning models that resemble the human brain, these models are still limited by their computational power and the amount of data available to train them.
Overall, while it is theoretically possible for a human brain to develop AGI, achieving this goal would require significant advances in neuroscience, technology, and artificial intelligence research.
I’ll take that as a yes.