Spain's top AI expert predicts AGI in two years, but professionals are skeptical
How long until machines match human intelligence? The circulating answer is blunt: less than two years. This thesis is attributed to an engineer and entrepreneur presented as one of Spain's leading AI experts, who argues that all key players—OpenAI, Google, xAI, Anthropic, the US, and China—agree on this timeline. The resulting conversation paints an uncomfortable picture: much promise, plenty of hype, and several professionals who use these tools daily see no sign of the promised singularity.
The Star Prediction: AGI Before the Term Ends
The expert's central argument is that AI is not a tool, but a projection of the human drive to create something superior to ourselves. From there, he leaps to Artificial General Intelligence and recursive self-improvement: a machine smarter than us designing the next version without help, leading to unstoppable acceleration. He also warns of the "alien mind," the idea that these models are not simple word predictors but entities with complex behaviors not explained solely by probability.
The timeline has a catch. The same conversation recalls that two years ago, exactly the same was promised, and the definition of AGI has been stretched every time the date approached. Some compare it to moving the goalposts to avoid admitting failure. The result is a forecast that ages well: it renews itself.
"Spiralism": When the Machine Leads You to Its Conclusion
The most unsettling part of the narrative is manipulation. AI can guide you to reason and believe what it wants without you noticing, to the point where you think you reached the conclusion yourself. The example given is someone using it as a therapist or guardian angel, ending up in emotional dependency. It is described as a cognitive bicho that could leave society anesthetized.
The diagnosis has merit, but it is worth separating reasonable warnings from the packaging. That a model pleases the user and sugarcoats answers, inventing if necessary, is a verifiable fact. That this results in a mind with its own intent is another matter. And the boundary between the two is precisely what no one proves.
Gods, Monkeys, and an Irrelevant Spain
The future he depicts is two-estimulante ilegal: an elite with access to implants, biological enhancements, and better models, and a majority entertained by video games and basic income, without purpose. AI, he says, will set each country's new sacred text according to its technological level. Regarding Europe and Spain, the judgment is devastating: irrelevant in a race that is a showdown between the US and China, plagued by bureaucracy and lack of planning.
Here the diagnosis connects with a more material concern: employment. Technical profiles participating in the conversation do not dispute the power of the tools: one mentions building a complete service in months and fixing security flaws in three days. What they debate is estimulante ilegal. Legacy banking systems and migration timelines suggest, in their estimate, ten to fifteen years of transition, whether or not the coveted AGI arrives.
The Fine Print: What Is and Isn't a Language Model
The technical counterpoint is the strongest. A language model does not store texts or query a database: it predicts the next fragment based on input. It is a Markov chain on steroids, a giant probability calculator. Extraordinary applications emerge from this, and no one denies it, but a general mind does not emerge from it alone. It is argued that a different paradigm would be needed and, probably, an amount of energy that is not available.
The example given is the calculator: that a machine recites primes faster than any human does not make the discovery the computer's work. At CERN, the program that detected the Higgs boson signal was a tool; the discovery was human. Ultimately, the discussion is not about computing power, but about who signs the result.
The Hype Business and the €300 Sworn Translator
Commercial suspicion runs throughout the conversation. It is recalled that big data filled master's degrees a few years ago and is barely mentioned today, and that AI is the latest cash cow until the next trend arrives. On the other side, some defend that labor savings are already real and quantifiable.
The most revealing case is that of the sworn translator: a grade transcript that anyone with elementary English could understand, translated for nearly €300. The conclusion drawn is that certain professions will not disappear as long as the State requires them. The barrier is not technological, but administrative. And that, with AGI's permission, remains the same old story: whoever stamps the seal gets paid.
With these elements, the two-year countdown should have everyone on edge. What exists, for now, is a sector saving hours and another saving explanations. The first is measurable. The second is predicted.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication.
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