Definition
Strong AI, also referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), is a type of artificial intelligence that can achieve any intellectual task that a human can such as tasks that require social intelligence, reasoning, creativity and problem-solving [1]. Presently, Strong or General Artificial Intelligence is only theoretical and can be seen only in science fiction movies such as Megan and Companion.
A good example of Strong AI is an AI that can speak Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, English, and 200+ other Nigerian languages fluently, understands cultural nuances like when to greet elders in Igbo tradition and can mediate disputes using traditional conflict resolution methods from different ethnic groups.
Types of Artificial Intelligence [2].
Origin
The quest for strong artificial intelligence started long before the term itself was well known. The intellectual groundwork for strong AI emerged in 1950 when Alan Turing publicized his seminal paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," that launched the imitation game, commonly called the Turing Test. This paper addressed the fundamental question "Can machines think?" and laid the groundwork for measuring machine’s emotional and general intelligence against a human brain that remains influential today. Research in our time is still testing if strong AI is possible [3].
Context and
Usage
If researchers
and developers eventually build general AI with human capabilities, they can
theoretically help humans solve global problems such as climate change modeling
and mitigation or be tasked with finding medical breakthroughs through advanced
medical research.
Artificial General Intelligence can also help advance technology and human knowledge, changing what we consider innovative in the last few years. With their advanced deep learning, they can discover new scientific theories we haven’t even thought of yet or figure out how to better educate humans to transform our educational institutions. They will be able to change certain industries like computer science and data science [4].
Why it Matters
Strong AI is
important as it intends to create AI systems with the same range of cognitive
abilities as humans, that would make it possible for it to reason across many
domains, adapt to new situations, and develop creative solutions to complex
problems.
While narrow AI is good at specific tasks, strong AI's versatility could lead to discoveries and innovations that benefit humanity. Developing safe, ethical strong AI aligned with human values is challenging but necessary to fully realize its potential. The objective of Strong AI is using broad AI capabilities to solve some of the world's biggest challenges, rather than just building intelligent machines [5].
In Practice
Researchers are
striving to reach strong AI. So currently, strong AI does not exist. But some
notable developments that are encouraging, can be seen in the case of MuZero, a
computer program created by Google DeepMind that has managed to master games it
has not even been taught how to play, including chess and an entire suite of
Atari games, through sheer brute force in re-playing games millions of times.
See Also
- Supervised Learning: Learning from labeled examples with known outcomes
- Symbolic AI: Using explicit knowledge representation and logical rules
- Unsupervised Learning: Learning without labeled data
- Weak AI: Systems designed for specific tasks
- Zero-shot Learning (ZSL): Making predictions without training examples
Reference
- Botpenguin. (n.d). Strong AI.
- Quizmanthon. (n.d). Types of Artificial Intelligence (Based on Capabilities).
- Rafalski, K. (2025). What is Strong AI? The Truth Behind AGI.
- BairesDev Editorial Team. (2025). Strong AI and Artificial General Intelligence.
- Moveworks. (2025). What is strong AI?