VOA慢速：科技公司欲打造通用人工智能

Tech Companies Want to Build Artificial General Intelligence

慢速 | 高考 偏难 | 678词 | 7min24s

刘立军供稿

Part I. QUESTIONS

Listen to the news and choose the best answer to each question you hear.

Q1. What ability does AGI have that makes it different from current AI technology?

A. It can perform basica computer operations.

B. It excels at generating texts and images.

C. It is mainly limited to single-task operations.

D. It matches human capabilities in various cognitive tasks.

Q2. Why did Geoffrey Hinton suggest the definition of AGI has changed over time?

A. Because people’s expectations for AGI have decreased.

B. Because current AI systems like Chat-GPT were once considered as having general intelligence.

C. Because the term AGI has become outdated and irrelevant.

D. Because scientists have developed a clear definition of AGI.

Q3. What is one topic that will be discussed at the upcoming AGI conference in Vienna?

A. The economic impact of AGI systems.

B. How to regulate the use of generative AI.

C. Ways to measure the progress towards AGI.

D. The potential of AGI in improving education.

Q4. According to OpenAI, when is a system considered to have achieved AGI?

A. When it can outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

B. When it can generate texts or images better than humans.

C. When it becomes the most economically valuable tool.

D. When it has been approved by its nonprofit board of directors.

Q5. What concern did Michael Cohen express regarding AGI?

A. He believes the push for developing AGI is too slow.

B. He suggests governments aren’t aware of AGI’s potential.

C. He fears AGI could plan actions harmful to humanity.

D. He thinks there are not enough regulations for generative AI.

Part II. TRANSCRIPT

Tech Companies Want to Build Artificial General Intelligence

In the middle of the 20th century, computer scientists dreamed of building a computer as smart as humans. Now, tech companies are in a race to build it.

Called artificial general intelligence, or AGI, the systems would do much more than current AI technology. (Q1) AGI would be as good as humans in many areas of human thinking. These include planning, problem solving, and learning from experience.

Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Chat-GPT maker OpenAI are all working to develop AGI.

At the same time, governments and leading AI scientists worry about ways the technology could be dangerous for humanity.

AGI development

As artificial intelligence has developed, the meaning of AGI has changed over time.

Geoffrey Hinton is a scientist who helped create the first AI systems. (Q2) He told The Associated Press that 20 years ago, people would have agreed that a system like Chat-GPT had general intelligence. But now people think AGI should be able to do more than what Chat-GPT does.

Still, scientists have not yet agreed on a clear definition of AGI. “I don’t think there is agreement on what the term means,” Hinton said by email.

Most current artificial intelligence systems are generative AI. That means they produce things such as texts or images. While generative AI is mainly limited to such tasks, AGI could do many different kinds of work.

Pei Wang is a professor who teaches an AGI course at Temple University in the American state of Pennsylvania. He helped organize the first AGI conference in 2008. He said that adding the letter ‘G’ to AI sent an important message. It showed that computer scientists “still want to do the big thing. We don’t want to build tools. We want to build a thinking machine,” Wang said.

(Q3) Finding agreement on how to measure AGI is one of the issues that will be discussed next month at an AGI conference in Vienna, Austria.

“This really needs a community’s effort and attention so that mutually we can agree on some sort of classifications of AGI,” said Jiaxuan You. He is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

mutually adv. 相互地；彼此；共同地

OpenAI, based in the state of California, says its nonprofit board of directors will decide when its systems have reached AGI. (Q4) OpenAI defines AGI as a system that can “outperform humans at most economically valuable work.”

If OpenAI develops AGI, its partner Microsoft will not have the rights to make money from it. In 2020, Microsoft signed an agreement with OpenAI that gave Microsoft the rights to OpenAI’s AI models. However, that agreement is supposed to end once OpenAI has created AGI.

Is AGI dangerous?

Last year the 76-year-old Hinton quit his job at Google. He wanted to share his worries about the possible dangers of AI.

A recent study in the journal Science also warned of AI systems able to plan for the future.

Michael Cohen is a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead writer of the study. (Q5) He said he worries that an AGI system might create plans to make humans disappear.

“I hope we’ve made the case that people in government need to start thinking seriously about exactly what regulations we need to address this problem,” Cohen said.

Push to develop AGI

Some people in the tech industry want to develop AGI slowly and carefully. Still, companies are competing to develop the systems.

London-based Deep Mind was founded in 2010 with the goal of developing AGI. It is now owned by Google. OpenAI was founded in 2015 to develop AGI, but with the added goal of making the technology safe.

In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company’s long-term goal was to build “full general intelligence”.

At Amazon, the head scientist for the voice assistant Alexa changed job titles to become head scientist for AGI.

You, the University of Illinois researcher, said working on AGI may help tech companies find the most talented computer scientists. He said many researchers would choose to work on AGI instead of generative AI.

I’m Andrew Smith. And I’m Dorothy Gundy.

Part III. KEY

Q1. D. 细节题。文本中提到：AGI would be as good as humans in many areas of human thinking. These include planning, problem solving, and learning from experience. 意为：通用人工智能（AGI）在许多人类思维领域将达到与人类相当的水平，这些领域包括规划、解决问题以及从经验中学习。因此可以看出AGI与当前AI技术的不同之处在于其在多种认知任务上与人类能力相当。故答案选D。

Q2. B. 细节题。文章中Geoffrey Hinton指出：20 years ago, people would have agreed that a system like Chat-GPT had general intelligence. But now people think AGI should be able to do more than what Chat-GPT does. 意为：20年前，人们可能会认为像Chat-GPT这样的系统已经具备了通用智能；但如今，人们认为通用人工智能（AGI）应该能够做到比Chat-GPT更多的事情。这解释了过去一段时间内对AGI定义变化的原因。因此答案是B。

Q3. C. 细节题。文本中提到将在奥地利维也纳举办的AGI会议中讨论的一个议题是：Finding agreement on how to measure AGI. 意为：如何衡量AGI的进步。因此正确答案是C。

Q4. A. 细节题。根据文本中OpenAI的定义：OpenAI defines AGI as a system that can ‘outperform humans at most economically valuable work.’ 意为：OpenAI将AGI定义为一种能够“在大多数具有经济价值的工作上超越人类”的系统。答案是A。

Q5. C. 推理题。虽然文章并没有直接陈述Michael Cohen的担忧，但通过他的引言可进行推断：He said he worries that an AGI system might create plans to make humans disappear. 意为：他说，他担心一个AGI系统可能会制定计划，试图让人类消失。由此可以理解，Michael Cohen对AGI可能规划对人类有害的行动感到担忧。故正确答案是C。

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