Nick Bostrom, a philosopher who founded the now-closed Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said it may be impossible to know exactly when humanity crosses into the singularity.
He compared the moment to falling into a black hole.
“At some point they glide over the hole’s event horizon, which means they are henceforth forever separated from the rest of the universe,” Bostrom told Business Insider. “Yet from their perspective, everything still seems the same as before.”
Bostrom said AI is showing the “first stirrings” of recursive self-improvement, with systems beginning to contribute meaningfully to AI research. He said a key missing capability is continual learning.
“Using current AIs is like working with a brilliant and extremely well-educated recruit, but it’s always their first day at the job,” he said.
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