Alibaba Group Holdings (NYSE:BABA) Cloud pioneer Wang Jian has pushed back against the buzz around artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI), arguing that such labels oversimplify the nuanced growth of AI systems.
What Happened: In an interview with Bloomberg's Annabelle Droulers, released on Monday, Wang dismissed popular AI classifications as misleading.
"Certainly, I don’t like this kind of classification," he said. "AI is AI. The only thing we could say is that we have AI to superior—whatever you call superior. It just means you get more capability. That’s it."
Wang compared AI development to human growth, suggesting it's a continuum rather than a set of defined stages.
Even for human growth, from kindergarten to Ph.D., it's just a continuum, he said. "Certainly, your capabilities grow," but it's very hard to call that a fundamental difference.
When asked about the push toward humanoid robots and embodied AI, Wang urged a clear distinction between robotics and artificial intelligence. "Robotics is a different field… AI provides a different engine for robotics."
Why It's Important: Wang's remarks come amid a global debate on how to define and regulate advanced AI systems.
AGI refers to an AI system capable of performing any intellectual task a human can do, with the ability to learn, reason and adapt across diverse domains.
On the other hand, ASI goes a step further—it’s a hypothetical form of AI that surpasses human intelligence in all areas, potentially reshaping society in profound and unpredictable ways.
Several prominent tech leaders have shared their predictions on when AGI might emerge. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previously remarked that AGI could arrive during Donald Trump's presidency.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin anticipates AGI could be developed before 2030, while DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis offered a more conservative outlook, expecting it shortly after 2030.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, meanwhile, suggested last year that AGI could be reached as early as 2026 or 2027, though he cautioned that unforeseen external factors might delay its arrival.
Read Next:
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
