Seed AI - Definition

Seed AI is a specific type of artificial intelligence designed to be capable of recursive self-improvement. The simplest form of self-improvement would be optimizations for efficiency and raw speed, but these are not sufficient for the sort of open-ended recursive self-enhancement needed to create true seed AI. Seed AI must be able to understand the purpose behind the various elements of its design, and design entirely new modules that will make it genuinely more intelligent. Needless to say, a seed AI requires a vast amount of initial general intelligence, beyond that of any artificial intelligence created so far.

Creating seed AI is the goal of several current AI projects. The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence is the most prominent of those explicitly working towards and promoting seed AI, along with Friendly AI. The Artificial General Intelligence Research Institute, creator of the Novamente AI engine, also aims to create seed AI. Several other artificial general intelligence projects implicitly work towards seed AI, although they do not publicly state it as a goal.

Many Singularitarians believe that seed AI is the most likely technology to bring about a technological singularity.

External links

• What is Seed AI? (http://singinst.org/seedAI/seedAI.html) -- A publication by the Singularity Institute serving as a brief overview of seed AI
• The Novamente AI Engine (http://agiri.org/engine.htm) -- The project page for AGIRI's planned seed AI
• General Intelligence and Seed AI (http://singinst.org/GISAI/index.html) -- An informal and approachable explanation of seed AI by researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky
• Levels of Organization in General Intelligence (http://singinst.org/LOGI/index.html) -- A very formal and detailed explaination of the design principles to eventually be used in creating the first seed AI; recommended primarily for academic readers