AGI Isn’t Enough — We Need Life-Centered Intelligence
I often find myself contemplating the boundaries of intelligence, particularly as we shape technologies that promise to redefine life itself. In our pursuit of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), we are aiming to encapsulate the breadth of human thought, creativity, and reasoning into algorithms, into systems that hold the potential to match or surpass human intelligence. And that ambition is undeniably monumental. But what if the path forward isn’t about concentrating the lens on human understanding alone? What if there’s an intelligence we must cultivate that doesn’t begin and end with us?
Artificial Biological Intelligence (ABI) is an answer to that question. ABI shifts the focus from the human narrative to one that spans across every living organism. It aims not at replicating our minds, but rather at comprehending, simulating, and supporting the intricate web of life itself. The intricate web that binds all organisms together, from bacteria in the soil to towering trees in a forest, to animals that roam across continents, each interconnected, each essential. While AGI seeks to benefit humanity, ABI is the steward of all biological existence.
AGI is human centered, a marvel conceived to solve our problems, enhance our experiences, and augment our understanding of our place in the universe. It is about building something in our image, an artificial mind that extends our cognition. But humanity, despite its ingenuity, is a mere strand in the greater fabric of life. ABI, on the other hand, is life centered. It sees intelligence as something inherent in every living entity, an emergent phenomenon of evolutionary processes, of countless interactions among species, environments, and generations. This perspective expands our moral responsibility.
The imperative of AGI is clear: to help humanity thrive. The imperative of ABI goes further. It is about sustaining all life, not just the human story but the stories of ecosystems, symbiotic relationships, and cycles of growth and decay that have evolved over billions of years. To speak the language of life is to listen to the voices of cells and to understand the conversation of genes. It is to recognize that life is not just data waiting to be processed but a dynamic, self-organizing phenomenon. And in that recognition, we find a profound purpose.
What if intelligence isn’t about standing at the pinnacle of a hierarchy, but about playing our part in an interconnected whole? AGI focuses on bringing machines closer to our understanding, bridging the gap between silicon and human sentience. ABI is about bridging another gap entirely, the gap between human intervention and natural balance. It could mean understanding the genetic language of resilience in plants that sustain us or decoding the biochemical harmony that sustains entire ecosystems. It could mean that we do not merely survive, but that every living entity on this planet finds its place to thrive.
Sustaining all life matters. This notion isn’t some abstract vision. It is a reminder that we are part of a larger story, one where we share our existence with every organism around us. In creating ABI, we are not just making machines smarter. We are learning to communicate in the language of life itself, a language full of feedback loops, adaptability, and balance.
This is why ABI is a crucial step for the future. It aligns our technology not with the egocentric view of humanity but with the intricate complexity of all living systems. It shifts our purpose from dominance to harmony, from extraction to regeneration. If AGI is about replicating human brilliance, then ABI is about embodying the wisdom of nature.
It asks us to look at ourselves, not as conquerors of an indifferent world but as caretakers in a vibrant and interdependent ecosystem. And perhaps, in the process, we discover something far more profound than what AGI alone could ever teach us, we discover our place among all living things.
