The Path to Broad AI

AI is a big topic. We find it helpful to modify it with some adjectives: Narrow, Broad, General.

Narrow AI is the ability to perform specific tasks at a super-human rate within various categories, from chess, Jeopardy!, and Go, to voice assistance, debate, language translation, and image classification. Broad AI is next. We’re just entering this frontier, but when it’s fully realized, it will feature AI systems that use and integrate multimodal data streams, learn more efficiently and flexibly, and traverse multiple tasks and domains. Broad AI will have powerful implications for business and society. Finally, General AI is essentially what science fiction has long imagined: AI systems capable of complex reasoning and full autonomy. Some scientists estimate that General AI could be possible sometime around 2050 – which is really little more than guesswork. Others say it will never be possible. For now, we’re focused on leading the next generation of Broad AI technologies for the betterment of business and society.

Here are some of the key technical themes shaping the path to Broad AI.