Many have said that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the invention we will ever make. Few dispute how it would alter society completely. However, there is great debate as to when it will be achieved among AI experts.

Some believe that we are looking at the capability in the next 15-20 years while other feel it is decades, if not centuries, out. There is even a portion of the AI community who feels we will never see AGI.

At the same time, there is also debate about how it will be if it is achieved. Will it benefit humanity or be the end of us as a species? This is a question that is hotly contested.

Needless to say, the purpose that we use AI for today and the entities that are controlling it do not paint an optimistic picture. We have governments who are using AI to enhance their military capabilities, i.e. kill people more efficiently. They are also engaging in mass surveillance of the population.

On the corporate front, we also have surveillance in an effort to better target the individuals. This is done so for the purpose of advertising. Hence, AI is just another tool to try and sell people more stuff.

There is another line of thinking (pun intended) that believes AI is being used to "program" people. By dictating what they can see and the information they have access to, these systems can basically dominate what is presented to us. This is where many feel the social media companies are going.

Nevertheless, for the sake of this article, we will focus upon the AI race that is at hand.

The entrants are as follows, in the order of where they stand:

• China
• United States
• Western Europe

This is basically a two horse race but Western Europe is trying desperately to catch up. What is at stake is very high. The belief is that the leader by 2030 will likely dominate the rest of this century.

Data Data And More Data

AI systems today are dependent upon data. This is no secret. It is really a pretty simple system.

Our overriding AI approach is to take larges amounts of data and feel it into powerful machines. Through repetition, we have machine learning. Hence, more data and more powerful computers are always sought out.

From this perspective, China is in the lead. Thus, they have the advantage. Nobody generates more data than China. Not only do they have the largest population in the world, they also have a technologically advanced society. Everything in that country is monitored and under surveillance. Leaving aside the human rights abuses, the bottom line is an incredible amount of data is available.

If this is the future of AI, China will likely be the clear winner. No other area is going to catch up to China with the amount of data is generates. Even if the U.S. and EU progress forward at a rapid pace, China is doing the same.

Paradigm Shift

There is a line of thinking among AI experts that a paradigm shift is required to make the leap to the next level.

Our present approach requires too much energy and is far too slow to make any significant progress. We must remember we are still very early in the process and, overall, have not really accomplished that much on the "intelligence" end.

Some experts believe that another mode is needed to progress towards the AGI level. This means learning that requires a much smaller data sets. Some are experimenting in that area with some degree of success.

This is where China could face some issues. Innovation is the key here. While China is a country that excels at "copying", it traditionally have not been great at coming up with new innovations. A society that is under a social credit system does not foster independent and contrarian thinking. These are often required for massive development in a completely new direction.

An AI learning system that does not require near as much data and computational power could be to the United States and Western Europe's advantage. They could close the gap a lot quicker since the data advantage would be relegated moot. This would alter the playing field that the battle is being waged, perhaps even tilting it in the West's favor.

The latest concept that is being pursued is to replicate how learning actually happens in the brain. Many are starting to approach the idea of creating an "artificial brain" that mirrors that of a human. The hope is that AI systems will learn similar to the way children learn. This would allow for the same evolutionary learning process, just at a much quicker pace.

Who will win the end is hard to determine. At this point, the race might be a distraction from the bigger picture.

If AI has the ability to create the most wonderful decade humans ever saw, or start the process to end human life, perhaps we ought to focus upon if designing autonomous system that can kill and/or grow in power is a wise path to pursue.

After all, what good is winning the race if a "higher" species enters and decides we are just a nuisance?

I guess, in the end, the natural path of every human is eventually death anyway. None of us are able to escape it.

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