> AGI is usually defined as the ability to do any intellectual task about as well as a highly competent human could
I think one major disconnect, is that for most people, AGI is when interacting with an AI is basically in every way like interacting with a human, including in failure modes. And likely, that this human would be the smartest most knowledgeable human you can imagine, like the top expert in all domains, with the utmost charisma and humor, etc.
This is why the "goal post" appears to be always moving, because the non-commoners who are involved with making AGI and what not never want to accept that definition, which to be fair seems too subjective, and instead like to approach AGI like something different, it can solve some problems human's can't, when it doesn't fail, it behaves like an expert human, etc.
Even if an AI could do any intellectual task about as well as a highly competent human could, I believe most people would not consider it AGI, if it lacks the inherent opinion, personality, character, inquiries, failure patterns, of a human.
And I think that goes so far as, a text only model can never meet this bar. If it cannot react in equal time to subtle facial queues, sounds, if answering you and the flow of conversation is slower than it would be with a human, etc. All these are also required for what I consider the commoner accepting AGI as having been achieved.
By that definition, does a human at the other end of a high-latency video call not have AGI because they can't react any faster that the connection's latency would allow them to have? From your POV what's the difference between that and an AI that's just slow?
> does a human at the other end of a high-latency video call not have AGI because they can't react any faster that the connection's latency would allow them to have
Correct. A person who'd mentally operate that slowly would be considered to have some cognitive disability. For example, would likely not be allowed to drive a car.
You could be fooled in thinking it is a human behind a slow connection, but layman would not consider it real AGI in my opinion, since you have to handicap the human, it seems like lowering the bar just to pretend you reached AGI.
You might recognize it's pretty close to AGI, if it has all the other qualities, but it needs to also operate at a similar response time, uptime, and so on.
My point is, everyone that's not trying to build AGI defines it as, same as an idealized smartest human would be in every way. I truly think this is how most people imagine AGI in their head, and until you have that, they'll say it's not AGI, and industry folks will claim the goalpost keeps moving, when in reality they kept setting their own post.