1
Ali Javaheri
Analyst, Emerging Technology
ali.javaheri@pitchbook.com
Originally published October 3, 2024
pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com
EMERGING SPACE BRIEF
AGI Research
Trending companies
Overview
The goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI) research is to develop software
capable of reasoning, problem-solving, and autonomously adapting to new
challenges without task-specific programming. Unlike narrow AI, which is trained for
specific tasks, AGI has the potential to perform any intellectual task a human can,
with the capacity to automate the majority of economically valuable work across
diverse industries.
Background
AGI has its roots in the mid-20th century, coinciding with the advent of the first
digital computers in the 1940s. Pioneers such as Alan Turing posed critical questions
about machine intelligence, leading to the conceptualization of the Turing test
in 1950. The term “artificial intelligence” was coined by John McCarthy in 1955,
marking the official birth of AI as a field. Despite early optimism from figures such
as Marvin Minsky predicting AGI within a decade, setbacks in research led to an AI
winter during the 1970s.
Progress picked up again in the 1990s with IBM’s Deep Blue defeating chess grand
master Garry Kasparov, a milestone indicating that computers were catching up
to human intelligence. Futurists such as Ray Kurzweil continued to make bold
predictions, forecasting AGI by 2029. The 21st century has witnessed significant
advancements, including a major breakthrough in 2016 when DeepMind’s AlphaGo
beat world champion Lee Sedol in the complex game of Go, a feat requiring creative
and strategic thinking. Most recently, the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022
marked another leap toward AGI, generating humanlike text and driving increased
investment in the field.
Humanity’s fascination with AGI is evident in pop culture, with characters such as
JARVIS from the Iron Man comic book and movie series embodying the ambition
for intelligent systems that act as both assistants and decision-makers. Today,
founders with AGI aspirations are raising capital, aiming to develop systems within
VC funding timelines by projecting current scaling laws. AGI is unlikely to emerge all
at once; instead, it will likely progress through human-level breakthroughs in various
domains, each contributing to the broader development of AGI.
AGI research VC
deal activity
Deal value ($M)
Deal count
2019
2018
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
$701.2
$143.6
$66.5
$2,986.1
$1,484.5
$16,563.7
$15,938.6
11
3
11
11
23
41
39
Source: PitchBook • Geography: Global
As of September 27, 2024
Brendan Burke
Senior Analyst, Emerging
Technology
brendan.burke@pitchbook.com
For a deeper dive into the data and to explore
additional insights, visit the PitchBook
Platform or request a free trial.
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