AI smart enough to pass human tests could become a reality as soon as five years, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), the term given to AI that surpasses human intelligence, could arrive soon, depending on its definition, the Nvidia boss said.

Talking at an economic forum at Stanford University, Huang said if the definition of AGI is the ability to pass human tests, it might not be far off.

“If I gave an AI every single test that you can possibly imagine, you make that list of tests and put it in front of the computer science industry, and I’m guessing in five years time, we’ll do well on every single one,” Huang said.

In 2023, industry leaders signed an open letter warning of AI’s risk to humanity, following a call from the Future of Life Institute to pause AI development for six months.

The letter questioned if society should “develop non-human minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us”.

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Modern-day AI has already proven itself in specific human tests. In 2023, OpenAI announced that its GPT-4 model outperformed most law school graduates on the bar exam, a two-day test that attorneys need to pass to practise law in the US.

Huang said that AI should be able to pass any test in five years. However, the Nvidia boss did quell other anxieties about complete artificial general intelligence by noting the complexity of how the human brain works.

AI will find it difficult to beat a human engineer test due to the defined goals needed for each project, the Nvidia boss said.