Leading figures in artificial intelligence, including the heads of AI at Meta and Nvidia, suggest that machines have already achieved human-equivalent intelligence in specific areas. Speaking at a recent summit in London, the group, often called the “godparents” of modern AI, argued that the era of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is not a future event but a process that is currently unfolding.
The discussion marks a significant moment in the AI debate, moving the conversation from a theoretical future to a present-day reality. While the experts agree on the current capabilities of AI, they hold different views on whether machines will one day surpass human intellect in all domains.
Key Takeaways
- Top AI researchers, including Yann LeCun and Jensen Huang, believe AI has reached human-level intelligence in certain tasks.
- The concept of AGI is viewed not as a single event but as a progressive expansion of AI capabilities across different fields.
- There is a consensus that AI is already delivering significant societal and economic value, with applications being deployed today.
- Experts are divided on the long-term potential of AI, with some predicting machines will eventually outperform humans in all areas, while others believe human intelligence will remain critical.
The AGI Debate Shifts to the Present
The quest to build Artificial General Intelligence—a system with cognitive abilities comparable to a human—has long been the ultimate goal for many in the tech industry. Companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have secured billions in funding with this objective in mind. However, a panel of the world's most influential AI researchers suggests we may be looking at the problem incorrectly.
At the FT’s Future of AI summit in London, several winners of this year's Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering gathered to discuss the state of the technology they helped create. The group included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta AI chief Yann LeCun, and esteemed computer scientists Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Fei-Fei Li, and Bill Dally.
Jensen Huang of Nvidia argued that the debate over a specific AGI arrival date is largely academic. “We are already there... and it doesn’t matter because at this point it’s a bit of an academic question,” he stated, emphasizing that the technology’s application is what truly counts. He added, “For the first time, AI is intelligence that augments people, it addresses labour, it does work.”
The Business of AGI
Mentions of "AGI" in corporate earnings calls surged by 53% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year, signaling growing business anticipation for its impact.
A Gradual Unfolding, Not a Singular Event
The experts collectively pushed back against the popular notion of AGI as a sudden, transformative moment. Instead, they described a more gradual process where AI's capabilities expand progressively into new domains.
Yann LeCun, who leads AI research at Meta, explained this perspective clearly. “It is not going to be an event because the capabilities are going to expand progressively in various domains,” he said. This view reframes AGI not as a finish line to be crossed but as a continuous journey of technological advancement.
This perspective is already visible in the real world. Fei-Fei Li, a computer scientist and founder of World Labs, pointed to existing AI systems that outperform humans in specific tasks.
“Parts of machines will supersede human intelligence... Part of it is already here. How many of us can already recognise 22,000 objects in the world... how many humans can translate 100 languages?”
Li’s point highlights that AI has already achieved superhuman performance in narrow fields like object recognition and language translation, reinforcing the idea of a gradual and domain-specific expansion of intelligence.
Diverging Views on a Superintelligent Future
While the pioneers agree on AI's current power, they have differing opinions on its ultimate ceiling. The question of whether machines will one day surpass human intelligence across the board remains a point of contention.
The Case for Superintelligence
Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel laureate for his work on machine learning, offered a clear timeline for when AI might consistently outperform human reasoning. “How long before if you have a debate with a machine, it will always win? I think that is definitely coming within 20 years,” he predicted.
Yoshua Bengio, another Turing Award winner for his contributions to AI, sees no fundamental barrier to creating machines that can match or exceed human abilities. “I do not see any reason why, at some point, we wouldn’t be able to build machines that can do pretty much everything we can do,” he explained. However, he also cautioned against making definitive predictions. “You should be really agnostic and not make big claims because there’s a lot of possible futures now.”
The Race for AGI
The development of AGI is a major focus for both private companies and national governments. The United States and China are considered the primary competitors in a technological race to achieve this milestone, with billions being invested by tech giants and venture capitalists to accelerate research and development.
The Enduring Role of Human Intelligence
On the other side of the debate, some experts believe that human intelligence will retain a unique and critical role. Fei-Fei Li argued that while machine intelligence will become increasingly powerful, it won't render human cognition obsolete.
“Machine-based intelligence will do a lot of powerful things, but there is a profound place for human intelligence to always be critical in our human society,” she stated. This view suggests a future of collaboration, where AI augments human capabilities rather than completely replacing them.
The conversation among these foundational figures underscores a critical shift in the AI landscape. The focus is moving from abstract timelines to the tangible, real-world applications and societal impacts of increasingly intelligent systems. While the ultimate future of AI remains uncertain, its pioneers agree on one thing: its influence is already here, and it is growing every day.