Episode 11.14: AGI will arise under the influence of international competition to stay ahead.

AGI will arise because nations will engage in just the same kind of arms race that led to the development of nuclear arsenals and mutually assured destruction, for the simple reason that they dare not do anything else for fear of falling behind, and so falling prey to the devices that other people have developed. If the only way to defend ourselves is to develop a means of scrutinising everyone’s behaviour all the time, then we will in effect have created an AGI that has all the powers that we have historically traditionally attributed to our deities. The only difference will be that these deities will exist and be real, and will be fighting one another rather as the Greek and Roman gods were thought to do, for good or ill.