What are all AI levels and at which level is the current AI standing?
AI that is Artificial Intelligence, is usually described in levels (or stages of development) depending on how closely it can match or surpass human intelligence.
Levels of AI
1. Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI) – Weak AI
- Definition: AI specialized in a single task or a narrow domain.
- Examples:
- Google Translate
- ChatGPT (me)
- Self-driving car software
- Siri / Alexa / Cortana
- Key Point: Very good at what it’s trained for, but cannot transfer knowledge to unrelated areas.
- Status: This is where we are today.
2. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – Strong AI
- Definition: AI that can think, learn, and apply knowledge across different domains just like a human.
- Capabilities:
- Understand context and abstract concepts.
- Adapt to new situations without retraining.
- Learn and transfer knowledge from one field to another.
- Example (Hypothetical):
- An AI that can do physics research in the morning, write a novel in the afternoon, and teach a child in the evening—without special retraining.
- Status: Not achieved yet. Researchers are actively working toward this.
3. Artificial Superintelligence (ASI)
- Definition: AI that surpasses human intelligence in all aspects—creativity, problem-solving, emotions, decision-making.
- Capabilities:
- Could solve complex problems like climate change, advanced medicine, or interstellar travel.
- Might design technologies beyond human comprehension.
- Risks:
- If uncontrolled, could make decisions that humans can’t predict or stop.
- Status: Purely theoretical at this point.
(Some experts also talk about intermediate levels:)
- Reactive Machines: Only respond to inputs (like IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer).
- Limited Memory AI: Learns from past data (current machine learning models).
- Theory of Mind AI (future): AI that understands human emotions, beliefs, intentions.
- Self-aware AI (future): AI with consciousness, self-reflection, and awareness of existence.
Where are we now?
👉 Currently, AI is at Level 1: ANI (Narrow AI).
Even the most advanced models like GPT, Gemini, or Claude are not truly AGI, because they can’t autonomously understand, transfer, or reason across completely different tasks like a human brain.
But research is moving towards AGI (Level 2), which might emerge in coming decades.
Have you thought how can ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) surpass the human brain which will create ASI? If you are thinking like this then you have spotted a good paradox. If humans create ASI, how can ASI become smarter than the human brain that built it?
Let’s understand it down logically step by step:
1. Tools can surpass their makers
- A calculator is created by humans, but it can solve arithmetic faster than any human.
- A microscope was built by humans, but it can see details invisible to the naked eye.
- A jet plane was built by humans, but it flies faster and higher than humans ever could alone.
👉 Similarly, ASI could surpass the brain not because it’s “smarter by birth,” but because it will be engineered to operate differently and without biological limits.
2. Differences between the brain and AI
- Human brain: ~86 billion neurons, parallel processing, limited by biology (speed of chemical signals ~200 mph).
- Computers/AI: Can run at the speed of electricity (near light speed), scale up with massive parallelism (millions of processors), and expand memory infinitely (data centers, quantum computers in future).
👉 The architecture of AI allows it to run calculations and connections at a scale the brain never can.
3. Recursive Self-Improvement (The Key to ASI)
This is where the leap happens:
- Humans create the first advanced AI (AGI).
- That AGI is capable of improving its own algorithms and hardware designs.
- Each improved version can design an even better successor—at machine speed.
- This cycle could rapidly produce intelligence far beyond human capacity.
⚡ This is called the intelligence explosion (proposed by I.J. Good, 1965).
4. Creativity beyond the creator
Humans design the rules and seeds, but ASI could:
- Combine ideas in ways no human would think of.
- Process centuries worth of scientific data in hours.
- Simulate millions of experiments at once.
- Create new mathematics or physical theories outside human intuition.
👉 Just like a child can surpass their parents in knowledge or skills, ASI can surpass its creators.
5. Limits of the human brain
- Our brain is powerful, but also biologically constrained by energy, size of the skull, memory limits, and lifespan.
- AI is not bound by these— it can scale to planet-wide networks and even beyond (satellites, space probes, etc.).
✅ So, ASI surpasses the human brain not because humans are “less smart” than their creation, but because we build tools that can evolve beyond our own biological limits.