AI, AGI, and ASI: This Week in Review (March 3rd - 9th, 2025)
The world of AI moves at breakneck speed. Blink, and you might miss the latest breakthrough—or the latest existential crisis about AI taking over the world. From Google’s Gemini upgrade to AI-published research papers, it’s been a wild week. So, grab a coffee (or a glass of wine, if you prefer to process AI news with a bit of liquid courage), and let’s dive in.
Google's Gemini 2.0 Upgrade
Google has supercharged its AI Overviews in Search with Gemini 2.0, meaning you can now ask it about advanced coding, complex maths, and multimodal searches. In other words, the days of scrolling through 10 different Stack Overflow threads may soon be over. However, don’t be surprised if Gemini 2.0 still confidently hallucinates an answer every now and then.
AI Labeling at LA Times
The LA Times is now using AI to slap a “Voices” label on opinionated articles. While this may make media bias more transparent, one has to wonder: who watches the AI watchdog? If AI starts labelling everything as “biased,” what happens to those juicy, outrage-inducing headlines we all pretend not to enjoy?
Autoscience Carl
Autoscience Carl, the world’s first AI scientist, just published its papers in a peer-reviewed journal. Does this mean AI is replacing researchers? Not quite. However, if Carl starts submitting grant proposals, human academics might need a backup plan.
Robotic Actions Correction
MIT researchers have developed a system that lets humans correct a robot’s actions as they happen—kind of like a sci-fi version of “Simon Says.” The goal? To make robots less “oops, I dropped your grandmother” and more “got it, I’ll be gentle.” Handy for everything from surgery to assembling IKEA furniture.
FragFold for Drug Discovery
MIT has also rolled out FragFold, an AI system that predicts protein fragments for drug discovery. Translation: AI is now a pharmaceutical matchmaker, helping researchers speed up the process of finding treatments for diseases. Just imagine if AI could also predict which vitamins actually work—now that would be useful.
AI in Military Tech
Meet the YFQ-42A, an AI-powered fighter jet that will assist human pilots in combat. While it’s a big step for military tech, let’s hope the AI doesn’t pull a “Microsoft Clippy” moment in battle—”It looks like you’re trying to launch a missile. Need help?”
AGI Arms Race
Alibaba has launched QwQ-32B, its latest AI model, which is smaller and cheaper to run than its competitors. The AGI arms race between the U.S. and China is heating up—because nothing says “progress” like building artificial brains at a discount.
AGI Development
Experts are baffled by OpenAI’s GPT-4.5, which supposedly has “taste” and “aesthetic sensibility” but no groundbreaking benchmark results. If AI can develop a sense of taste, does that mean it’ll finally start recommending good wine pairings?
Conversational AI
Sesame’s latest conversational AI is apparently so natural that people can’t tell it’s not human. Great for customer service, terrible for avoiding robocalls. Expect more convincing, “Hi, this is Sarah from ‘Your Bank’” scams soon.
The Future of ASI
Experts have wildly differing predictions on when AGI will happen—some say 2040, others say 2026. Either way, we should probably start thinking about what we’re going to do when our computers are smarter than us. ASI could revolutionize healthcare by personalizing treatments and diagnosing diseases faster than humans. That sounds great—until you realise that your future doctor might be a sentient algorithm that prescribes “turning it off and on again” as a cure.
This week has been another rollercoaster in AI, from the rise of robotic scientists to AI-generated “taste.” While some developments are exciting, others are mildly terrifying. If you’re in the AI industry, buckle up. If you’re not, maybe pour yourself a drink and enjoy the show from a safe distance. Either way, AI is here to stay—and it’s only getting smarter. Cheers to the future, and let’s hope it includes AGI breakthroughs and good wine recommendations.
