Superintelligence

Definition

The word was popularised by Nick Bostrom in 2014. It does not mean a machine that calculates faster — calculators have done that for decades — but a general intelligence, able to learn, plan and understand better than we do in almost every field that matters.

What makes the notion dizzying is the asymmetry. Between two humans, the gap in competence is real but bounded: one can explain, learn, object. Faced with a superintelligence, nothing guarantees that such a path still exists. The question is no longer only “what could it do?”, but “could we still understand what it does?”