'AGI Is Too Important'—Ben Goertzel's Crypto Bet Against OpenAI

Ben Goertzel, the AI eccentric who promised us AGI by 2018 and delivered Sophia the robot (basically a chatbot with a face), is now betting on a new salvation: decentralized AGI on a blockchain. Because if there's one thing the world needs, it's superintelligence governed by the same technology that brought us Dogecoin and cat NFTs. His argument, laid out in Forbes, is that AGI is too important to be controlled by a few powerful entities like OpenAI and Anthropic. Never mind that those entities are at least building something that works; Goertzel wants to crowd-source the future of intelligence through tokens and consensus mechanisms.

But the irony is palpable. Goertzel himself has a history of grandiose claims and missed deadlines. He once predicted AGI by 2025; now he's pinning his hopes on decentralization, a concept that has so far delivered slow, expensive, and often fraudulent systems. Yet the article treats his proposal with a straight face, as if the solution to the AI alignment problem is to put it on a blockchain. Because that's worked so well for democracy, finance, and art.

Let's not be too harsh: it's possible Goertzel is onto something. Maybe the decentralized path is the only way to prevent an OpenAI or Anthropic from becoming the sole gatekeepers of AGI. Or maybe it's just another chapter in the long, sad history of brilliant people hitching their wagons to crypto. Either way, it's entertaining to watch. The article suggests that decentralized networks are the only safeguard against corporate control. Given that the most advanced decentralized AI today is a mediocre chess bot, this seems optimistic.