AGI Innovations Inc is an R&D company focused on advancing Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has secured $4 million in funding to support research on long-term AGI development. AGI is the AI discipline concerned with developing systems with human-like cognitive abilities such as general learning, reasoning, and problem solving.
AGI Innovations Inc, also known as AGi3, was formed early in 2014 to continue research originally spearheaded by Adaptive A.I. Inc (a2i2), an AGI R and D company formed in 2001. On completing its first generation AGI engine in 2008, a2i2 launched.
Peter Voss, founder of these companies, explains that while commercialization helped to validate the AGI approach taken by the company, it also totally shifted focus away from general AI to providing specific solutions to its customers. "Our AGI research was essentially halted.
Fortunately, we now have a new dedicated and funded company focused entirely on long-term AGI development” Voss said. “Over the past year we have assembled a strong 10-person team of programmers and ‘AI Psychologists’, and are now in full swing. We are, however, still seeking additional key personnel.”
AGi3 is currently engaged in a 30-months cognitive architecture project to consolidate and extend its various prior research results into a next-generation AGI engine prototype. This development aims to advance state-of-the-art deep natural language understanding (NLU) integrated with perceptual grounding, and exploration of meta-cognitive processes. While AGi3 has a pure R and D focus, it expects aspects of its new technology to be commercialized separately in the coming years.
Imagine if computers could learn and think. If machines were truly ‘intelligent.’ If software was more flexible and adaptable to work the way you want it to. If you could converse with your computer in plain English. If your business could operate more efficiently and effectively, with lower cost, by using more intelligent IT systems.
This optimistic vision is rapidly moving closer to reality. The foundational knowledge and technology to build computers with human-level learning and thinking ability are now finally emerging. Recent advances in computer technology combined with insights from fields as varied as psychology, philosophy, evolution, brain physiology, and information theory allow us to finally solve the previously intractable problems of creating real AI. The long-promised power of truly intelligent machines will soon be available to help us solve the many problems facing mankind.
We expect skepticism. Haven’t we been promised real artificial intelligence for 30 years or more? Yet all we see around us are ‘stupid’ computer programs that don’t understand what we actually want to do, and respond with cryptic error messages when things go wrong. What is more, they cannot adapt to changing circumstances or requirements, and they don’t learn from their mistakes. A new approach to AI, called ‘artificial general intelligence’, or AGI, has emerged. It promises to finally overcome the limitations of traditional AI, and usher in a new era of vastly superior computer systems and tools.