An early prototype framework for Artificial General Intelligence could be operating as early as next year, SingularityNET founder Ben Goertzel believes.

Speaking at the opening of the Beneficial AGI Summit in Panama on Feb. 27, Goertzel — who popularized the term AGI — laid out a blueprint for its development to ensure AGI isn’t controlled by corporations or governments and will help humanity rather than harm it.

AGI is a theoretical concept that, if accomplished, would develop an AI system with the ability to accomplish any intellectual task that human beings can perform.

Goertzel’s plan calls for the use of open source code, decentralized infrastructure and governance, open-ended cognitive architecture, diverse AGI algorithms, ethically sourced and managed data, and ensuring people from all around the world are included.

Goertzel told Cointelegraph in an interview the blueprint underpins everything “we’re doing in the whole SingularityNET ecosystem.”

“We’re building decentralized AI infrastructures that are agnostic with respect to what AI approach you may want to take,” he said, noting the aim was that a “12-year-old genius from Tajikistan” could contribute to a breakthrough.

Goertzel was the chief scientist at Hanson Robotics, the company behind the humanoid bot “Sophia.” Source: Andrew Fenton/Cointelegraph

But while the network is designed to foster collaboration and different contributions to help achieve AGI, Goertzel said that his “best guess” is his own OpenCog Hyperon project “may be the system to make the breakthrough.”