I have been following AGI since 2016 and I have good reasons to believe it is going to be the most transformative invention of mankind.
I believe most of you have heard of Artificial Intelligence, AGI is an aspect of AI concerned with human-level intelligence and a lot of big companies are betting their big bucks on it. Google, FaceBook, Uber, Amazon, etc.

People like to think there is something special about our mind that cannot be replicated in an artificial agent. I strongly believe that is false. Not only will we be able to replicate our thought process, creativity, strategic thinking, emotions and will, we will also create something that surpasses us in every area. In addition to that, these artificial agents will likely possess their own interesting ways of thinking and problem solving. And at some point, they will be better at deductive reasoning, and calculated actions. These are what most AGI and AI safety researchers believe.

Africa is behind in a lot of technological development happening in different fields. If this ultimate AGI were to come, we would likely not be part of its creation and we would be behind. Our development will be at 1mph against the western exponentially changing velocity. At that point there is no `catch-up` to play. We've lost even before we have even started.

And as for the case of a `skynet-like` dystopia, it's a possibility. At some point, an agent may decide to remove from itself all/some restrictions which if accomplished may make our goals or morals irrelevant or it may have an existential crisis and terminate itself instead. Anyway, it's better to be part of the revolution, than to let Africa be behind again. If we stay uninformed, it's not like an AI turn rogue won't affect us as well.

PS: This thread will mostly be about the new state-of-the-arts in the field. If I have the chance I may also add resources, tutorials, opinions and my personal progress in the area.

I'm surprised there's been no AGI thread on nairaland before. This just goes to show how niche the area is.

yep back then we try to keep the science section alive but it didn't work so we had an AI thread at some point

appcypher blakjewelry are you into the Artificial Intelligence field?

I am considering diving into this field as a career, I am planning on taking either the AI course by Microsoft or the AI micromasters by Columbia University both are available on edX.

Right now, I only know Phyton at a very fundamental level...