Agency in Generalized AI
Nov 04, 2025The Rise of AI and Its Implications
With all the advancements in the past one hundred years, few have presented the challenge of generalized Artificial Intelligence (AI). Most innovations have a previous generation of disruptive technologies that form the basis of the new technology or platform that emerges. While this is true of AI, there is a significant and often overlooked difference. AI is the first technological advancement in history that contains within it an emerging agency.
Defining Agency in AI
One of the best ways to define agency is "the capacity to influence your thoughts and behaviour." Let's pause and think about that for a moment. Your car doesn't do anything you don't want it to do. It may have assistive technologies like lane keeping or adaptive cruise control, but it doesn't decide when and how to use those capabilities. They're hard-coded. You turn them on and off and make adjustments at will.
Now, imagine if your car had agency. One day, you might find it missing from your garage because it decided to go and get gas based on an idea it had for its own road trip. Let's extend that idea a little further. What if your car decided it didn't like the way you drove it and simply turned itself off in protest? Or, worse, what if it decided to run over you to ensure you never drove it like that again?
The Future of AI Learning
This is AI in the very near future. There's another rub: AIs learn very quickly. Exponentially, in fact. This is something we humans struggle to comprehend. If I tell you that something is ten times more powerful than something else, you can understand that. However, if I tell you that the same something is 2 to the power of 16 more powerful, you're lost. Me too, by the way! But that is how fast AI can learn.
AI can also connect to many other AIs and take inputs from thousands or millions of interactions in a minute. It learns from feedback to improve exponentially and almost instantly.
The Implications of Cognitive Parity
When someone tells you that AI will attain cognitive parity with humans someday, understand that this day is coming very quickly. Parity will only exist for a few milliseconds before the power of exponential growth leaves you and me in the cognitive dust.
Agency is something we all assume for ourselves, which includes control over the technologies we encounter in our daily lives. What happens when one of those technologies thinks for itself, may disagree with what we want, and grows exponentially more powerful within a very short time period?
The Importance of Understanding AI Agency
We'll be taking a deep dive into that in future posts. It's incredibly important that we grasp this fundamental aspect of AI as an emerging technology. Back in 2000, Ray Kurzweil predicted cognitive parity between AI and humans by 2036. I think that may turn out to be conservative. It's what happens in the seconds, minutes, and hours after that parity that we all need to think about.
Conclusion: Keeping an Eye on the Future
As we continue to explore the implications of AI, it’s crucial to stay informed and engaged. The rapid evolution of AI technology poses both opportunities and challenges. Understanding agency in AI will help us navigate this complex landscape.
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