What is superintelligence?

Definition

Superintelligence describes a proposed system whose cognitive capabilities surpass the best human performance across a broad range of domains. The concept is stronger than general intelligence because it implies a large capability advantage rather than broad competence alone.

It remains hypothetical, and there is no agreed measurement for when the threshold would be crossed. Discussions often examine how replication, research acceleration, and feedback processes could affect capability growth, but expectations about such processes are not proof that they have occurred.

ELI5

Superintelligence is the idea of an AI system that is far more capable than people at nearly every important kind of thinking work. It is different from simply being very good at one task.

For example, a system that beats experts at a single game is specialized, while the superintelligence idea would require much broader and substantially greater ability across science, planning, learning, and other fields.

Frequently asked questions

How is superintelligence different from general intelligence?

General intelligence means broad, flexible capability, while superintelligence implies performance far beyond humans across most important intellectual domains.

Does superintelligence exist today?

There is no established evidence or agreed evaluation showing that a system meets this hypothetical threshold.

Videos explaining superintelligence

  1. Nick Saraev, Jack Roberts and Jakub Pachocki with AI safety and compute infrastructure themes