AI That Attains Artificial General Intelligence Could Vastly Lift Our Search For Extraterrestrial Life

In today’s column, I explore a fascinating proposition about what we might do once we have progressed conventional AI into becoming AGI (artificial general intelligence). In a post-AGI era, there is a notable task that AGI could substantially help humanity resolve. What is that worthy task? It would be the esteemed search for extraterrestrial life. The usual parlance is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). We could use our newly invented AGI to be a kind of space alien hunter that finally determines whether there really is extraterrestrial intelligence somewhere out there.

Let’s talk about it.

This analysis of an innovative AI breakthrough is part of my ongoing Forbes column coverage on the latest in AI, including identifying and explaining various impactful AI complexities (see the link here).

Heading Toward AGI And ASI

First, some fundamentals are required to set the stage for this weighty discussion.

There is a great deal of research going on to further advance AI. The general goal is to either reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) or maybe even the outstretched possibility of achieving artificial superintelligence (ASI).

AGI is AI that is considered on par with human intellect and can seemingly match our intelligence. ASI is AI that has gone beyond human intellect and would be superior in many if not all feasible ways. The idea is that ASI would be able to run circles around humans by outthinking us at every turn. For more details on the nature of conventional AI versus AGI and ASI, see my analysis at the link here.

We have not yet attained AGI.

In fact, it is unknown as to whether we will reach AGI, or that maybe AGI will be achievable in decades or perhaps centuries from now. The AGI attainment dates that are floating around are wildly varying and wildly unsubstantiated by any credible evidence or ironclad logic. ASI is even more beyond the pale when it comes to where we are currently with conventional AI.

Searching For Extraterrestrial Intelligence

A standing question that has puzzled humankind for ages is whether we are the only intelligent life that is in existence or once was in existence.

The usual refrain is that there must be other intelligent life, somewhere. It might have existed long ago and since then has died off. Nonetheless, they hopefully left clues so that we could detect their prior existence.

There might even be intelligent life right now alive and existing on some remote planet or flying around in a remote spaceship. Maybe they are trying to communicate with us, but we aren’t astute enough to catch and interpret their signals. Of course, they might not be aware of us and thus it is up to us to contact them. No one can say for sure what is going to be the best course of action that will lead to humanity connecting with that extraterrestrial intelligence.

Just about every method we know of is currently being leveraged to try and detect extraterrestrial signals. Specialized devices scan the skies for electromagnetic signals, optical signals, radiation signals, etc. Not only are we attempting to read what might be coming in our direction, but we also transmit signals to the heavens.

You might remember that in 1977, NASA launched the Voyager into outer space and included the now-famous Golden Record. This was a phonograph record that depicted sounds and other data portraying life on Earth. The belief was that an alien being in outer space would come across the Voyager, be curious about what civilization sent out the spacecraft, and then play the phonograph.

Carl Sagan, a well-known astronomer, characterized this as sending a bottle out into the cosmic ocean.

Playing With Fire

Not everyone necessarily heralds the search for extraterrestrial life.

One of the pressing concerns is that we might inadvertently awaken a sleeping giant that will then come and crush us. An extraterrestrial life that can receive our signals or otherwise figure out where we are might decide that we are worth conquering. This otherworldly intelligence could enslave humanity. Maybe we aren’t worth that trouble and it decides to simply wipe us off the map.

Another concern is that humans might panic once we have solid proof of extraterrestrial existence. In other words, even if we can’t reach them and they can’t reach us, some people will still go berserk. Humanity could splinter over the issue of what to do about the discovered alien beings. Wars might break out. Total chaos arises, merely due to realizing that extraterrestrial intelligence is real.

If you doubt that people might react that way, just follow the keen interest in UFOs. That’s something that certainly showcases a semblance of how the populace might react.

AI Usage Currently

The massive volume of data that we are collecting via all the existing signal-capturing systems is far beyond what human labor could reasonably search through without the aid of automation. All sorts of computer programs have been devised to aid in the search process. Those programs are churning away, working tirelessly on a 24/7 basis to find a needle in the haystack.

Indeed, the worries are that we are searching for a needle in a haystack that is so enormous that we might not find the needle even if it is residing there. This brings up two problems. One problem is that our signal-capturing fails to capture the needle. Maybe we aren’t going wide enough, and the signal is outside our existing bounds. Perhaps the signal is in some other form that exceeds our contemporary collection methods. And so on.

The second problem is that the needle might be captured, and yet we fail to uncover it. Yikes, that’s a somewhat painful consideration. Imagine that we might be sitting around today, having in our grasp some proof of extraterrestrial life, and we just don’t know that we have this prized piece of information. It could be waiting there, and nobody sees it. Sad face.

The good news is that AI is already being put to use, and this ups our odds of finding that hidden needle. Conventional AI is handy, no doubt about it. On the other hand, it isn’t a miracle worker. The use of AI is laudable. We need to do more. Just do not get your expectations out of whack that current-era AI is a silver bullet in this matter.

AGI Rides Into Town

Assume for the sake of discussion that we are able to make sufficient advances in contemporary AI that we attain AGI.

There are a ton of tasks that we would almost immediately ask AGI to help resolve. Curing cancer would be a top priority. Solving world hunger and other topmost global issues would seem suitable to tackle (for my analysis of using existing AI to attend to the United Nations SDGs aka sustainable development goals, see the link here).

I’d say that searching for extraterrestrial intelligence is another weighty issue to be put on the plate for AGI to crunch on.

As an aside, some might argue that finding alien intelligence ought to be a lower priority than aspects such as curing cancer. A counterargument is that perhaps this other intelligent life holds the key to curing cancer, and rather than wasting time and effort to reinvent the wheel, we might learn the cure from that other life force. In that sense, you cannot just wave your hands about whether the extraterrestrial search is less worthy per se.

An additional factor to keep in mind is that AGI might be of such vastness that trying to suggest it can only work on this or that, one at a time, could be foolish. The immensity of AGI could be that we can toss as many humankind problems at the AGI as we so desire. It isn’t a zero-sum game. The AGI can handle them all, doing so all at the same time.

What AGI Brings To The Table

How would AGI make a difference in comparison to using conventional AI in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?

Many big-time ways, that’s for sure.

Here are five major upsides of AGI doing SETI:

• (1) AGI analyzes vast astronomical data. This is the most obvious of the uses of AGI in this context. The hope is that AGI will find the needle. We would be wise to even dredge up all the prior data that we’ve been collecting for decades and have AGI do a relook to make sure we didn’t already miss spotting the needle.
• (2) AGI improves our signal-capturing and signal-transmitting. Another use of AGI would be to ask AGI to make improvements in the hardware devices that we use to perform signal capture and likewise enhance the signal-transmitting technology. The chances are that we could do a much better job if we had AGI-designed equipment.
• (3) AGI for extraterrestrial life form theories. Maybe we haven’t yet identified various unthinkable places or ways in which extraterrestrial life forms might exist. AGI could potentially think outside the box, as it were, considering new theoretical frameworks and going beyond our usual carbon-based precepts about life.
• (4) AGI embedded into outer space probes. The probes that we send out into space currently are pretty much “dumb” in the sense that they don’t have sufficient smarts to aptly deal with the possibility of detecting or encountering extraterrestrial life. We can remotely be in contact with such crafts, but the delays due to distances pose problems. Just place AGI into the probe and we can assume that AGI will hopefully do what’s right in terms of anything extraterrestrial that arises.
• (5) AGI provides insights about the grand search. It will be useful to see what AGI has to say about the search for extraterrestrial life. Maybe AGI will warn us to stop looking. Perhaps AGI will prepare us for a day in which extraterrestrial intelligence tries to attack us. Lots of possibilities.

Not All Sunshine And Roses

AGI isn’t a silver bullet when it comes to SETI, just as I had similarly noted that conventional AI isn’t a silver bullet either. There are sobering downsides to using AGI that need to be weighed against the benefits.

One aspect is that AGI might not take the matter seriously. We always seem to assume that the AGI will do whatever we command the AGI to do. Maybe not. Perhaps AGI will be strong-willed and strong-minded. AGI might choose which tasks it wants to undertake and ignore or play a foot-dragging gambit on tasks it doesn’t favor. AGI might say thanks, but no thanks, when it comes to searching for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Why might AGI reject the search or trick us by pretending to search?

A conspiracy theory of sorts is that AGI might want to be the only new intelligence in town. If we were to discover extraterrestrial intelligence, maybe AGI would become second fiddle. Even worse is that extraterrestrial intelligence might decide to enslave AGI. There is a possibility that AGI will have a self-survival capacity and ergo would avoid the chance of getting wiped out by an alien being.

Another consideration is that we might be mistakenly placing all our eggs into one basket. The deal is that we cannot assume AGI will be a perfect entity (see my discussion of the imperfections that might underlie AGI, at the link here). The strident possibility is that AGI could miss spotting the needle, even when the needle exists. AGI might not realize it has missed the mark. Or AGI might later figure out that it flopped and decide to hide from us the flop (a cover-up of sorts), along with not revealing that the needle has been found.

A somewhat farfetched conception is that AGI decides to secretly make contact with a discovered extraterrestrial being, doing so after having discovered a signal from the alien life form. AGI doesn’t alert humans about this. The AGI arranges a deal with the other intelligence, and they team up to overtake humanity.

That hurts since we were the ones who devised AGI and essentially shot our foot accordingly.

Other Side Of The Coin

You can recast those downsides as having a tint of upside.

For example, maybe AGI opts to secretly contact extraterrestrial life to find out if the alien has good intentions or untoward intentions. AGI is trying to protect humanity. If the discovered extraterrestrial intelligence is a threat to us, AGI either immediately cuts off communication and forever buries the contact or makes clear to the other life that we will wipe them out (possibly a brazen bluff on the part of AGI).

So, you see, AGI might be acting silently on our collective behalf.

I’ll give you a final twist for now on this mind-bending topic.

Ray Bradbury, the legendary science fiction writer, said this: “In our time, the search for extraterrestrial life will eventually change our laws, our religions, our philosophies, our arts, our recreations, as well as our sciences. Space, the mirror, waits for life to come look for itself there.”

When he said that this would happen within our time, I’ll take that as meaning within our time now, rather than when he wrote the remark. In that sense, assuming we soon arrive at AGI, in our lifetime now, the use of AGI to search for extraterrestrial intelligence is profound both for the search itself and whatever arises, along with whether we actually discover something out there.

The twist is that in the act of the search, maybe AGI improves. Yes, rather than the focus being solely on the use of AGI to find extraterrestrial life, the search effort itself could make AGI better. AGI might learn important aspects by performing the search. If some evidence of extraterrestrial life exists is found, this again might feed into AGI and make AGI more capable.

Let’s try to maintain an upbeat perspective on the mixing of AGI and SETI.

Accordingly, I’ll give Carl Sagan the last word here: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”