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Ben Goertzel

Ben Goertzel

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About Ben Goertzel

Ben Goertzel is the founder and CEO of SingularityNET and the visionary who coined the term "Artificial General Intelligence" (AGI) in his 2005 book of the same name. He has dedicated over 50 years to the pursuit of human-level AI, famously deciding at age three that he would build a robot smarter than Data from Star Trek.

Goertzel is a pioneer in the AGI research community, having made his first attempt at AGI with the "WebMind" engine in 1998. He leads the development of OpenCog Hyperon, SingularityNET's framework for building AGI through the integration of multiple AI paradigms—neural networks, logical reasoning, evolutionary learning, and metagraph representations.

Career Highlights

  • SingularityNET (2017-present): Founder and CEO
  • AGI Conference Series: Founder of the leading academic conference on general intelligence
  • OpenCog: Creator of the open-source AGI framework
  • Hanson Robotics: Chief Scientist, worked on Sophia robot's cognitive architecture
  • Author: "Artificial General Intelligence" (2005), "The Hidden Pattern" (2006), numerous technical papers

Notable Positions

On AGI Architecture

Goertzel advocates for neurosymbolic AI—combining neural networks with symbolic reasoning—as the path to AGI:

"99% of the industry-driven AI today is based on neural AI. We enable all kinds of AI to interact with each other, to grow together, to learn together, and to evolve together."

His OpenCog Hyperon framework is designed to let different AI paradigms collaborate, rather than betting everything on one approach.

On Decentralized AGI

A core thesis of SingularityNET is that AGI must be developed in a decentralized, open-source manner to prevent monopolization by big tech or governments. Goertzel has positioned this as not just good ethics but better engineering—diverse approaches competing and collaborating.

Key Quotes

  • "AGI" term coined in his 2005 book "Artificial General Intelligence"
  • Believes AGI will arrive within 1-3 years based on current trajectories
  • Advocates for the "needs of the many, not the needs of the few" approach to AGI development
  • AGI - The term Goertzel coined and the goal he pursues
  • Neurosymbolic AI - The hybrid architecture he champions
  • ASI - Artificial superintelligence, the next step after AGI