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[ARTICLE · art-120460] src=news.ycombinator.com ↗ pub= topic=artificial-intelligence verified=true sentiment=· neutral

Ask HN: Can we classify AI as: subhuman, quasihuman, human, superhumam?

A Hacker News user proposed a four-generation classification of AI, ranging from 'subhuman' (1980-2020 era machine translation, game AI, protein folding) to 'quasihuman' (current LLMs requiring human-in-the-loop) to 'human worker substitute' (autonomous agents that verify and improve their own outputs) and finally 'superhuman' (recursive self-improvement leading to ASI). The author speculates that after the current 'dry' chatbots, users may shift to less user-friendly but more autonomous AIs that complete tasks without human oversight.

read1 min views2 publishedSep 3, 2026

Gen 1: subhuman, eq: machine translation, game AI/chess, timeline prediction/protein folding...(1980 - 2020 era).

Gen 2: quasihuman: human assistant that requires human-in-the-loop: human evaluates, gives directions, asks, tries, implements. "you're here": LLMs/chatbots (2020s). Gen 3: human worker substitute. While not strictly 'human' per se, without will and emotions it can be considered "human job replacement" as it eliminates the need for human-in-the-loop as it verifies successful compilation, rates visual result (videogames it produces/videos/images), validates fiction it writes, marketing strategies/trading strategies and learns from mistakes and improves after many attempts until it finishes task with acceptable result.

Gen 4: Superhuman: like gen 4 but + having full recursive self-improvement (it updates/rewrites its own code and recopmiles while performing a task - full awareness)? Theoretically gen 4 can be ASI if the seed is "make better AI which makes better AI and so on until optimal AI is achieved given the laws of physics" (good learning and ability to update everything should achieve it - though compute limitations may prevent it and well...regulations).

I know the definition is suboptimal and people are extremely opinionated on AI to a point people have different definitions about AGI and ASI but this is at least some definition! I believe after "dry" chatbots in the 30s we may switch to less user-friendly yet smarter and more useful AIs, you will not longer see "you're absolutely right!" and have to spent hours to evaluate and correct errors with the AI, you will just start it and wait for it to finish, kind of like down a movie in the old days. Too sci-fi/wrong? Too pessimistic...because Yudkowski/Terminator is coming to get us in 2029? 10x for your comments!

Comments URL: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49552230](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49552230)

Points: 1

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