Babbage from The Economist (subscriber edition) Blaise Agüera y Arcas: why AI really is intelligent
11 snips
Nov 26, 2025 
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Google’s CTO for Technology & Society and author of 'What is Intelligence?', tackles the complex interplay between AI and true intelligence. He proposes that intelligence, akin to life, is rooted in computation. Agüera y Arcas discusses AI's rapid advancements, arguing it could be more revolutionary than the internet. He also explores the concept of AI as a creative partner, the philosophical definition of life, and the future of human-AI symbiosis, highlighting cooperation over competition in evolving technology.
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Intelligence Emerges From Natural Computation
- Blaise frames intelligence as computation born with life: self-construction requires information processing.
- Thus brains are natural computers and computation is a natural science, not just engineering.
Use Models To Multiply Productivity
- Use advanced models as creative and technical accelerants in research and development workflows.
- Blaise used Gemini to produce a technical document and working code in days instead of weeks.
LLMs Already Cross The AGI Threshold
- Blaise argues modern open-ended models trained on internet-scale data already display general intelligence.
- He says transporting today's frontier models to 2000 would have convinced people they are AGI.
