A Definition of AGI

Paper

Dan Hendrycks¹, Dawn Song^2,3, Christian Szegedy⁴, Honglak Lee^5,6, Yarin Gal⁷

Erik Brynjolfsson⁸, Sharon Li⁹, Andy Zou^1,10,11, Lionel Levine¹², Bo Han¹³, Jie Fu¹⁴, Ziwei Liu¹⁵

Jinwoo Shin¹⁶, Kimin Lee¹⁶, Mantas Mazeika¹, Long Phan¹, George Ingebretsen¹

Adam Khoja¹, Cihang Xie¹⁷, Olawale Salaudeen¹⁸, Matthias Hein¹⁹, Kevin Zhao²⁰

Alexander Pan², David Duvenaud^21,22, Bo Li^3,23, Steve Omohundro²⁴, Gabriel Alfour²⁵

Max Tegmark¹⁸, Kevin McGrew²⁶, Gary Marcus²⁷, Jaan Tallinn²⁸

Eric Schmidt¹⁸, Yoshua Bengio^29,30

Dan Hendrycks¹, Dawn Song^2,3, Christian Szegedy⁴

Honglak Lee^5,6, Yarin Gal⁷, Erik Brynjolfsson⁸

Sharon Li⁹, Andy Zou^1,10,11, Lionel Levine¹²

Bo Han¹³, Jie Fu¹⁴, Ziwei Liu¹⁵

Jinwoo Shin¹⁶, Kimin Lee¹⁶, Mantas Mazeika¹

Long Phan¹, George Ingebretsen¹, Adam Khoja¹

Cihang Xie¹⁷, Olawale Salaudeen¹⁸, Matthias Hein¹⁹

Kevin Zhao²⁰, Alexander Pan², David Duvenaud^21,22

Bo Li^3,23, Steve Omohundro²⁴, Gabriel Alfour²⁵

Max Tegmark¹⁸, Kevin McGrew²⁶, Gary Marcus²⁷

Jaan Tallinn²⁸, Eric Schmidt¹⁸, Yoshua Bengio^29,30

¹Center for AI Safety

²University of California, Berkeley

³Virtue AI

⁴Morph Labs

⁵University of Michigan

⁶LG AI Research

⁷University of Oxford

⁸Stanford University

⁹University of Wisconsin–Madison

¹⁰Gray Swan AI

¹¹Carnegie Mellon University

¹²Cornell University

¹³Hong Kong Baptist University

¹⁴HKUST

¹⁵Nanyang Technological University

¹⁶KAIST

¹⁷University of California, Santa Cruz

¹⁸Massachusetts Institute of Technology

¹⁹University of Tübingen

²⁰University of Washington

²¹University of Toronto

²²Vector Institute

²³University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

²⁴Beneficial AI Research

²⁵Conjecture

²⁶Institute for Applied Psychometrics

²⁷New York University

²⁸CSER

²⁹Université de Montréal

³⁰LawZero

Introduction

The lack of a concrete definition for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) obscures the gap between today’s specialized AI and human-level cognition. This paper introduces a quantifiable framework to address this, defining AGI as matching the cognitive versatility and proficiency of a well-educated adult. To operationalize this, we ground our methodology in Cattell-Horn-Carroll theory, the most empirically validated model of human cognition.

The framework dissects general intelligence into ten core cognitive domains—including reasoning, memory, and perception—and adapts established human psychometric batteries to evaluate AI systems. Application of this framework reveals a highly “jagged” cognitive profile in contemporary models. While proficient in knowledge-intensive domains, current AI systems have critical deficits in foundational cognitive machinery, particularly long-term memory storage.

The resulting AGI scores (e.g., GPT-4 at 27%, GPT-5 at 57%) concretely quantify both rapid progress and the substantial gap remaining before AGI.

GPT-4 and GPT-5 capabilities radar chart

The capabilities of GPT-4 and GPT-5.

Definition

"AGI is an AI that can match or exceed the cognitive versatility and proficiency of a well-educated adult."

The framework comprises ten core cognitive components, derived from CHC broad abilities and weighted equally (10%) to prioritize breadth and cover major areas of cognition:

Acquired Knowledge

Perception

Central Executive

Output

Citation

@misc{hendrycks2025definitionagi,
      title={A Definition of AGI}, 
      author={Dan Hendrycks and Dawn Song and Christian Szegedy and Honglak Lee and Yarin Gal and Erik Brynjolfsson and Sharon Li and Andy Zou and Lionel Levine and Bo Han and Jie Fu and Ziwei Liu and Jinwoo Shin and Kimin Lee and Mantas Mazeika and Long Phan and George Ingebretsen and Adam Khoja and Cihang Xie and Olawale Salaudeen and Matthias Hein and Kevin Zhao and Alexander Pan and David Duvenaud and Bo Li and Steve Omohundro and Gabriel Alfour and Max Tegmark and Kevin McGrew and Gary Marcus and Jaan Tallinn and Eric Schmidt and Yoshua Bengio},
      year={2025},
      eprint={2510.18212},
      archivePrefix={arXiv},
      primaryClass={cs.AI},
      url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18212}, 
}