OpenAI says the AGI era has begun. AI researchers aren’t so sure

Earlier this month, speaking at the launch event for OpenAI’s new GPT-6 Astra, Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president, declared that the “AGI era” had begun. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, generally refers to AI systems that can match or surpass human abilities across virtually every cognitive task. Long regarded as the holy grail of AI research, AGI has for decades remained a goal somewhere over the horizon. And now, apparently, it’s here—at least, if Brockman is to be believed. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, another one of the industry’s most influential voices, seems convinced. He congratulated OpenAI on its achievement, tweeting, “AGI has arrived.” There is, however, a problem with declaring that AGI has arrived: There is no universally accepted threshold for what counts as AGI, and many researchers would dispute that today’s models have crossed it. That ambiguity also gives companies plenty of room to claim the milestone early, especially when doing so carries obvious marketing value. It feels, in a sense, like the race among cellular carriers to slap the next “G” on their networks before the underlying technology fully satisfies the technical standard. Now, Astra is an impres…