Ben Goertzel

{{short description|American computer scientist and AI researcher}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Ben Goertzel

| image = 2019 - Centre Stage - Day 2 VJR21570 (49024153726).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Goertzel in 2019

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1966|12|8}}

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| occupation = CEO and founder of SingularityNET

}}{{Transhumanism|People}}

Ben Goertzel is a computer scientist, artificial intelligence researcher, and businessman. He helped popularize the term artificial general intelligence.{{Cite web |last=Press |first=Gil |title=Artificial General Intelligence Or AGI: A Very Short History |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2024/03/29/artificial-general-intelligence-or-agi-a-very-short-history/ |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=Forbes |language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://goertzel.org/who-coined-the-term-agi/|title=Who coined the term "AGI"? » goertzel.org|language=en-US|access-date=28 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181228083048/http://goertzel.org/who-coined-the-term-agi/|archive-date=28 December 2018|url-status=live}}, via Life 3.0: 'The term "AGI" was popularized by... Shane Legg, Mark Gubrud and Ben Goertzel'

Early life and education

Three of Goertzel's Jewish great-grandparents immigrated to New York from Lithuania and Poland.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpSmCKe27WE&feature=youtu.be&t=956 Ben Goertzel: Artificial General Intelligence | AI Podcast #103 with Lex Fridman], YouTube, 22 June 2020 Goertzel's father is Ted Goertzel, a former professor of sociology at Rutgers University.{{Cite web |last=Paulos |first=John Allen |date=November 5, 1995 |title=Pauling's Prizes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/05/books/pauling-s-prizes.html |access-date=2024-09-23 |website=The New York Times}} Goertzel left high school after the tenth grade to attend Bard College at Simon's Rock, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Quantitative Studies.{{cite book|last=Goertzel|first=Benjamin|title=Nonclassical Arithmetics and Calculi|year=1985|publisher=Simon's Rock of Bard College}} Goertzel graduated with a PhD in mathematics from Temple University under the supervision of Avi Lin in 1990, at age 23.{{MathGenealogy|id=40053}}

Career

File:Web Summit 2017 - Press Conferences SM5 7487 (24372825758).jpg

Goertzel is the founder and CEO of SingularityNET, a project which was founded to distribute artificial intelligence data via blockchains.{{cite news |last1=Popper |first1=Nathaniel |title= How the Blockchain Could Break Big Tech's Hold on A.I. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/technology/how-the-blockchain-could-break-big-techs-hold-on-ai.html |work=The New York Times |date=20 October 2018 |access-date=28 May 2020}} He is a leading developer of the OpenCog framework for artificial general intelligence.{{Cite web|url=https://wiki.opencog.org/w/Background_Publications#Papers_Directly_Related_to_OpenCog_AI|title=Background Publications - OpenCog|website=wiki.opencog.org|accessdate=22 April 2022}}{{primary inline|date=December 2023}}

He once received a grant from Jeffrey Epstein.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/business/jeffrey-epstein-eugenics.html|title=Jeffrey Epstein Hoped to Seed Human Race With His DNA|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 31, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/01/jeffrey-epstein-seed-human-race-report|title=Epstein reportedly hoped to develop super-race of humans with his DNA|website=The Guardian|date=August 1, 2019}}

=== Sophia the Robot ===

Goertzel was the Chief Scientist of Hanson Robotics, the company that created the Sophia robot.{{cite web |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title=Sophia the robot's co-creator says the bot may not be true AI, but it is a work of art |url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/10/16617092/sophia-the-robot-citizen-ai-hanson-robotics-ben-goertzel |website=The Verge |date=10 November 2017 |access-date=26 November 2023}} As of 2018, Sophia's architecture includes scripting software, a chat system, and OpenCog, an AI system designed for general reasoning.{{cite news |first1=Jaden |last1=Urbi |first2=MacKenzie |last2=Sigalos |title=The complicated truth about Sophia the robot — an almost human robot or a PR stunt |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/hanson-robotics-sophia-the-robot-pr-stunt-artificial-intelligence.html |access-date=17 May 2020 |publisher=CNBC |date=5 June 2018 |language=en |archive-date=May 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200512030753/https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/hanson-robotics-sophia-the-robot-pr-stunt-artificial-intelligence.html |url-status=live }} Experts in the field have treated the project mostly as a PR stunt, stating that Hanson's claims that Sophia was "basically alive" are "grossly misleading" because the project does not involve AI technology,{{cite web |last1=Vincent |first1=James |title=Sophia the robot's co-creator says the bot may not be true AI, but it is a work of art |url=https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/10/16617092/sophia-the-robot-citizen-ai-hanson-robotics-ben-goertzel|website=The Verge |date=10 November 2017 |access-date=16 January 2024}} while Meta's chief AI scientist called the project "complete bullshit".{{cite web |last1=Ghosh |first1=Shona |title=Facebook's AI boss described Sophia the robot as 'complete b------t' and 'Wizard-of-Oz AI' |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ai-yann-lecun-sophia-robot-bullshit-2018-1?international=true&r=US&IR=T|date=4 January 2018 |website=Business Insider |access-date=16 January 2024}}

=Views on AI=

File:Ben Goertzel -.jpg

In May 2007, Goertzel spoke at a Google tech talk about his approach to creating artificial general intelligence.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-dycsiRwB4 | title= Artificial General Intelligence: Now Is the Time | publisher=GoogleTalks Archive | first=Ben | last=Goertzel | date=30 May 2007 | via=YouTube | accessdate=31 December 2021}} He defines intelligence as the ability to detect patterns in the world and in the agent itself, measurable in terms of emergent behavior of "achieving complex goals in complex environments".{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=Jacob|title=Thinking Machines: The Search for Artificial Intelligence|journal=Distillations|year=2016|volume=2|issue=2|pages=14–23|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/thinking-machines-the-search-for-artificial-intelligence|access-date=22 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819152455/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/thinking-machines-the-search-for-artificial-intelligence|archive-date=19 August 2018|url-status=dead}} A "baby-like" artificial intelligence is initialized, then trained as an agent in a simulated or virtual world such as Second Life[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6992613.stm "Online worlds to be AI incubators"], BBC News, 13 September 2007 to produce a more powerful intelligence.[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=11&articleId=9036438&intsrc=hm_topic "Virtual worlds making artificial intelligence apps 'smarter'"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021201150/http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=11&articleId=9036438&intsrc=hm_topic |date=21 October 2007 }}, Computerworld, 13 September 2007 Knowledge is represented in a network whose nodes and links carry probabilistic truth values as well as "attention values", with the attention values resembling the weights in a neural network. Several algorithms operate on this network, the central one being a combination of a probabilistic inference engine and a custom version of evolutionary programming.[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224654393_Patterns_Hypergraphs_and_Embodied_General_Intelligence "Patterns, Hypergraphs and Embodied General Intelligence"], Ben Goertzel, WCCI Panel Discussion: [http://139.78.75.247/WCCI-Web_Panel_bio.html "A Roadmap to Human-Level Intelligence"]{{Dead link|date=July 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}, July 2006

The 2012 documentary The Singularity by independent filmmaker Doug Wolens discussed Goertzel's views on AGI.{{cite web |url=http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/olson20130301 |title=The Singularity: A Documentary by Doug Wolens |publisher=Ieet.org |access-date=22 October 2013 |archive-date=21 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021072223/http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/olson20130301 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/01/pondering-our-cyborg-future-in-a-documentary-about-the-singularity/266873/ |title=Pondering Our Cyborg Future in a Documentary About the Singularity – Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg |work=The Atlantic |date=8 January 2013 |access-date=22 October 2013 |archive-date=21 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021071343/http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/01/pondering-our-cyborg-future-in-a-documentary-about-the-singularity/266873/ |url-status=dead }}

In 2023 Goertzel postulated that artificial intelligence could replace up to 80 percent of human jobs in the coming years "without having an AGI, by my guess. Not with ChatGPT exactly as a product. But with systems of that nature".{{Cn|date=March 2024}} At the Web Summit 2023 in Rio de Janeiro, Goertzel spoke out against efforts to curb AI research and that AGI is only a few years away. Goertzel's belief is that AGI will be a net positive for humanity by assisting with societal problems such as, but not limited to, climate change.{{Cite web|url=https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/ai-could-probably-make-80-of-jobs-obsolete-ai-guru-ben-goertzels-revelation-380911-2023-05-11|title=AI could probably make 80% of jobs obsolete: AI guru Ben Goertzel's revelation|website=businesstoday.in|date=11 May 2023 |accessdate=26 November 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a45780855/when-will-the-singularity-happen/|title=A scientist says the Singularity will happen by 2031|website=popularmechanics.com|date=9 November 2023 |accessdate=26 November 2023}}

Bibliography

{{cite book

| title=The Structure of Intelligence: A New Mathematical Model of Mind

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=1992

| publisher=Springer}}

{{cite book

| title=The Evolving Mind

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=1992

| publisher=Gordon and Breach}}

{{cite book

| title=Chaotic Logic: Language, Thought, and Reality from the Perspective of Complex Systems Science

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=1994

| publisher=Plenum}}

{{cite book

| title=Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics

| author=Ben Goertzel and Ted Goertzel

| year=1996

| publisher=Basic}}

{{cite book

| title=Creating Internet Intelligence

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2001

| publisher=Springer}}

{{cite book

| title=Artificial General Intelligence

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2005

| publisher=Springer}}

{{cite book

| title=Probabilistic Logic Networks: A Comprehensive Framework for Uncertain Inference

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2006

| publisher=Plenum}}

{{cite book

| title=The Hidden Pattern: A Patternist Philosophy of Mind

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2006

| publisher=Brown Walker}}

{{cite book

| title=The Path to Posthumanity

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2007

| publisher=Academica}}

{{cite book

| title=A Cosmist Manifesto: Practical Philosophy for the Posthuman Age

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2010

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

{{cite book

| title=Real-World Reasoning: Scalable Spatial Temporal and Causal Inference

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2011

| publisher=Atlantis Press}}

{{cite book

| title=Theoretical Foundations of Artificial General Intelligence

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2012

| publisher=Atlantis Press}}

{{cite book

| title=Engineering General Intelligence, Volumes 1 & 2

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2014

| publisher=Atlantis Press}}

{{cite book

| title=Between Ape and Artilect: Conversations with Pioneers of AGI and Other Transformative Technologies

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2014

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

{{cite book

| title=Ten Years to the Singularity If We Really Really Try

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2014

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

{{cite book

| title=The End of the Beginning: Life, Society and Economy on the Brink of the Singularity

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2015

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

{{cite book

| title=AGI Revolution: An Inside View of the Rise of Artificial General Intelligence

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2016

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

{{cite book

| title=The Evidence for Psi: Thirteen Empirical Research Reports

| author=Ben Goertzel

| year=2018

| publisher=McFarland}}

{{cite book

| title=The Consciousness Explosion: A Mindful Human's Guide to the Coming Technological and Experiential Singularity

| author1=Ben Goertzel

| author2=Gabriel Axel Montes

| year=2024

| publisher=Humanity+ Press}}

References

External links

[https://arxiv.org/search/advanced?advanced=1&terms-0-operator=AND&terms-0-term=Ben+Goertzel&terms-0-field=author&classification-physics_archives=all&classification-include_cross_list=include&date-filter_by=all_dates&date-year=&date-from_date=&date-to_date=&date-date_type=submitted_date&abstracts=show&size=50&order=-announced_date_first Ben Goertzel at arXiv.org]
[https://www.ted.com/talks/ben_goertzel_decentralized_ai TEDxBerkeley – "Decentralized AI"] (video:16min, March 2019)
[https://singularitynet.io SingularityNET]

Category:1966 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century American mathematicians

Category:21st-century American mathematicians

Category:American agnostics

Category:American roboticists

Category:American technology company founders

Category:American people of Brazilian-Jewish descent

Category:American artificial intelligence researchers

Category:Human–computer interaction researchers

Category:American technology writers

Category:Machine learning researchers