In short
The point where technology changes faster than anyone can forecast. We think the run-up has started: adoption alone is enough to change how every company works.
In physics, a singularity is where the models stop working. In technology, it is the point past which change comes too fast to forecast. I. J. Good described the mechanism in 1965: a machine smart enough to design a better machine sets off an intelligence explosion. Vernor Vinge gave it the name in 1993.
We do not treat it as a single day when a machine wakes up. It is people and software merging into one way of working, and that has already started. The models keep improving on a measured curve, and most companies have barely begun to use the ones that exist today.
That gap between what the tools can do and what companies actually do with them is where the damage happens, and where the upside is. Our long read on it is The Singularity, on the blog.
Example
What it looks like.
1965: Good, the intelligence explosion.1993: Vinge, the technological singularity.2026: AI shows up in layoff filings, and most firms have still not adopted it.
Related
Read next.
- recursive self-improvementAI doing the research that builds the next AI, which then does that research faster. The loop at the center of the singularity. Not here yet.Read the definition
- modelThe intelligence aan lobsteragent calls when it needs to read, write, or decide. Replaceable. When a better one ships, the same instructions run on it and the results improve.Read the definition
- lobsteragentSoftware that reads its instructions, looks at the situation, takes actions with real tools, and reports back. Runs on a schedule or on a trigger, without being prompted.Read the definition