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AGI: Not One Big Brain Model

Authors
  • Name
    Callum van den Enden
    Twitter

Overview

AGI isn't about building a single, massive AI brain. It's about coordinating many specialised AIs—like instruments in an orchestra—to create something far more powerful. This coordination, hidden from the user, is the key to unlocking AGI's true potential.

The Myth of the Monolithic AI

We've all seen the movies: a single, all-powerful AI emerges, either our benevolent overlord or our eventual downfall. But that's Hollywood, not reality. True artificial general intelligence won't spring fully formed from some giant language model like GPT-5. It's not about building a single, massive AI brain; it's about coordinating many specialised AIs.

Specialisation: The Key to True Intelligence

Think about your own brain. It's not one homogeneous blob of gray matter; it's a collection of specialised regions. Your visual cortex handles sight, your motor cortex handles movement, and so on. They work together seamlessly, sharing information and coordinating actions, creating a cohesive whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. AGI will be much the same.

This isn't some radical new idea. It mirrors how software development already works. We don't build monolithic applications anymore. We create microservices, small, specialised programs that work together to perform complex tasks. This modularity makes systems more robust, scalable, and easier to maintain.

Take my current project, YouQ AI. We're building an AI tutor, but it's not one giant AI. It's a collection of smaller AIs, each specialising in different areas: natural language processing, educational content delivery, personalised learning plans, and so on. They're all connected behind the scenes, working together to deliver a seamless learning experience for the user.

User-Centric AI: Hiding the Complexity

The real magic of AGI will be its ability to coordinate these specialised AIs to perform complex tasks without overwhelming the user. Imagine a user interface where you simply state your goal, and the underlying system orchestrates all the necessary AI agents and subsystems to achieve it. This level of abstraction is the key to making AI truly useful and accessible.

We might interact with an AI "composer" that orchestrates the underlying AI agents. Think of it like the conductor of an orchestra, coordinating the individual instruments to create a harmonious symphony of action. This composer AI would handle the task of breaking down complex requests into smaller, manageable tasks for the specialised AIs to handle.

Not Smarter, Just More Connected

People often say AI will become "smarter" than us, but that's misleading. AI is already smarter than us in many narrow domains. AlphaGo can beat the world's best Go players, and specialised AIs can diagnose medical conditions with remarkable accuracy. The real challenge isn't raw intelligence; it's context and connection.

AI currently lacks the rich, real-world context that humans take for granted, and it lacks the means to interact with the physical world in a meaningful way. Think about how a toddler learns: through constant interaction, experimentation, and feedback. AI needs similar opportunities to learn and grow. As AI systems become better connected to the real world—through sensors, actuators, and other interfaces—and as they gain access to more diverse datasets, they will become increasingly capable of performing complex, real-world tasks.

What do you think? Is this specialised approach the future of AGI, or are we on the wrong track? Share your thoughts in the comments below!