Report on the First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08)

main focus was on the creation of computer programs displaying intelligence at the human level and ultimately beyond. This proved harder than anticipated, and over the following decades most research activity in the field shifted toward the creation of computer programs solving specific sorts of problems that humans find to require intelligence. This more task-focused “narrow AI” work that has come to dominate the field has yielded a variety of theoretical and practical successes, but there is no real consensus regarding the relation of this work with the original goal of creating powerful general intelligence at the human level and beyond. In the last few years, an increasing number of AI researchers have come to feel the time is ripe for a renewed focus on the original goals of the AI field; and this was the motivation for the convening of the First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08), which was held at the FedEx Institute at University of Memphis in early March 2008. Detailed information about the conference, including a complete proceedings, is available online for those who were not able to attend.1 The conference was characterized by an enthusiastic and energetic tone, and there was a feel of real excitement about having so many AGI-oriented researchers in one place at one time. There were more than 120 attendees (including roughly 40 presenters). The participants included not only AGI researchers from academe and industry, Reports