What is AGI? How China’s AI firms are catching up as OpenAI Astra sparks debate

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's assertion that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) has been achieved, following OpenAI's release of its Astra model, has sparked debate about whether this milestone in AI has been reached. Concurrently, leading Chinese AI companies are announcing their pursuit of AGI as China aims to narrow the technological gap with the United States. While these companies express their ambitions, Beijing appears to be adopting a more reserved approach to the concept of AGI. The article aims to explain what AGI entails, the positions of major Chinese AI developers, and the perspective of Chinese policymakers on this advanced AI. AGI is generally understood as AI systems that can perform at or above human-level intelligence, though a singular definition remains elusive.