www.lesswrong.com/posts/9RL9MuGZjzm4q3gKG/what-just-happened-a-retrospective-of-...
1 correction found
who coined the term AGI
This overstates Legg’s role. Multiple sources say Mark Gubrud used “artificial general intelligence” in 1997; Legg later independently came up with and helped popularize the phrase in 2002.
Full reasoning
Available evidence does not support saying Shane Legg coined the term AGI outright.
- TIME reports that “the term AGI was first used by the physicist Mark Gubrud in 1997,” and says that in 2002 Legg independently came up with the phrase and popularized it with Ben Goertzel.
- WIRED likewise says there is “a clear answer” to who first came up with the term, identifying Mark Gubrud and describing Legg as later suggesting the phrase to Goertzel in the early 2000s.
- Even a Goertzel source says Legg proposed “Artificial General Intelligence” in 2002 for a book title, but adds that Goertzel later learned that Mark Gubrud had already used the term in a 1997 article.
So the strongest supported version is that Legg independently reintroduced / popularized the phrase, not that he was the first person to coin it.
3 sources
- Shane Legg: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023 | TIME
“The term AGI was first used by the physicist Mark Gubrud in 1997, but in 2002 Shane Legg independently came up with the phrase, and popularized it with his former boss, Ben Goertzel.”
- The Man Who Invented AGI | WIRED
WIRED says there is “a clear answer” to the term’s origin, identifies Mark Gubrud’s 1997 paper as using “artificial general intelligence,” and later quotes Legg saying: “I kind of reinvented the term.”
- Artificial General Intelligence (Goertzel review draft)
“My former colleague Shane Legg came up with ‘Artificial General Intelligence’ ... A few years later, someone brought to my attention that a researcher named Mark Gubrud had used the term in a 1997 article...”