What is "superintelligence"?

In the book Superintelligence, Nick Bostrom defines a superintelligence as “any intellect1 that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.”

The “virtually all domains” part of this definition is important: while current AIs are often much more capable than humans within some narrow domain — e.g., chess — superintelligence is usually used to mean a system that far exceeds human intelligence in most domains.


  1. "Superintelligence" usually refers to an artificial intelligence, but it doesn't have to. For example, a human whose intelligence was technologically augmented to a sufficient degree could be superintelligent. ↩︎



AISafety.info

We’re a global team of specialists and volunteers from various backgrounds who want to ensure that the effects of future AI are beneficial rather than catastrophic.