artificial superintelligence
In plain wordsSuperintelligence in machine form: AI that would outthink the best humans at nearly every intellectual task. Often shortened to ASI and pictured as the stage after human-level AI.
A superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist. realized in an artificial system, as distinct from enhanced humans or human organizations. The abbreviation ASI belongs to a three-step ladder of narrow AI (ANI), artificial general intelligenceartificial general intelligence, n.: AI that could learn and do almost any mental task a capable adult can, rather than excelling at one narrow job. Experts disagree on the exact bar and on when, or whether, it will arrive. (AGI) and ASI, in which ASI means AI that surpasses the best humans in essentially every cognitive domain, often by a wide margin. Many who use the ladder expect the AGI-to-ASI step to be short, because AGI could automate AI research and trigger an intelligence explosionintelligence explosion, n.: The idea that once AI gets good enough at improving AI, each smarter version could build a smarter one faster still, so abilities would snowball far beyond human level in a short time.; others expect a long period of uneven, partly superhuman systems. Since 2024 the term has moved from futurist writing into corporate strategy, with several companies naming superintelligence as a product goal (Meta's personal superintelligencepersonal superintelligence, n.: Mark Zuckerberg's term for a future AI far smarter than people that would serve each person as their own helper, rather than one central system doing everyone's work. and Microsoft's humanist superintelligencehumanist superintelligence, n.: Microsoft AI's name for very advanced AI that is deliberately kept limited, controllable and aimed at specific human problems such as medicine and energy, rather than all-powerful general systems., for example) and prominent investors forecasting ASI within a decade. No test for having reached ASI is agreed, and critics regard some of this usage as marketing.
The founders say they will ship nothing until they have safe ASI.
Origin
The abbreviation was in use by the early 2010s, for example in James Barrat's book Our Final Invention (2013), and spread through Tim Urban's 2015 Wait But Why essays, which popularized the ANI–AGI–ASI ladder. Corporate use grew after Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy founded Safe Superintelligence Inc. in June 2024, followed by Meta Superintelligence Labs in 2025.
Usage note
In practice 'superintelligence' and 'ASI' are interchangeable; ASI is more common in business and policy writing, superintelligence in philosophy and safety research.
Related
- superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist.
- artificial general intelligenceartificial general intelligence, n.: AI that could learn and do almost any mental task a capable adult can, rather than excelling at one narrow job. Experts disagree on the exact bar and on when, or whether, it will arrive.
- narrow AInarrow AI, n.: AI built to do one specific job, or a small set of related jobs, such as playing chess or spotting spam, without being able to turn its skill to unrelated problems.
- intelligence explosionintelligence explosion, n.: The idea that once AI gets good enough at improving AI, each smarter version could build a smarter one faster still, so abilities would snowball far beyond human level in a short time.
- Safe Superintelligence Inc.Safe Superintelligence Inc., prop. n.: A company started in 2024 by Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of OpenAI, with the single goal of building a superintelligent AI that is safe. It sells no products.
- Meta Superintelligence LabsMeta Superintelligence Labs, prop. n.: A division Meta created in 2025 to pursue superintelligence, gathering all of the company's AI teams under new leaders recruited in an expensive hiring campaign.
- superalignmentsuperalignment, n.: The problem of keeping AI systems far smarter than humans aligned with human intentions — and the name of OpenAI's short-lived 2023–2024 research team devoted to it.
Mentioned in
superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist., AI 2027AI 2027, prop. n.: A detailed 2025 forecast, written as a month-by-month story, imagining AI becoming superhuman by the end of 2027, with two alternative endings depending on whether humanity slows down., Executive Order 14434Executive Order 14434, prop. n.: A September 2026 order by US President Donald Trump telling federal agencies to say 'super intelligence' (SI) instead of 'artificial intelligence' (AI) in official documents and communications., open-endednessopen-endedness, n.: The ability of a system to keep producing new and interesting things without end — as evolution and human culture do — instead of stopping once it solves one fixed task., personal superintelligencepersonal superintelligence, n.: Mark Zuckerberg's term for a future AI far smarter than people that would serve each person as their own helper, rather than one central system doing everyone's work., superhuman codersuperhuman coder, n.: A milestone used by AI forecasters: an AI that can do the coding work of a company's best programmer, far faster and in many copies at once.