The definition that matters
AGI — artificial general intelligence — is AI that can do most economically valuable cognitive work at or beyond human level, across domains, without being retrained for each task. Today's AI is already superhuman at some tasks and oddly brittle at others; AGI is the point where the "brittle" list stops mattering economically. You don't need a philosophical definition to see why that matters: it's the point where intelligence becomes a utility you rent, not a salary you pay.
How close is it?
Nobody knows — and anyone who gives you a confident date is selling something. Serious researchers' estimates range from a few years to decades, and the honest debate has shifted from "if" to "how fast and how evenly". What's not in dispute: AI capability is compounding, the money behind it is historic, and the labour market is already feeling the early effects in writing, coding, design, support and analysis. The debate about timelines is fun (we host it daily in our forum); the preparation shouldn't wait for it to settle.
The economics: displacement and dividends
Every past technology wave destroyed some jobs and created others. The AGI worry is different in kind: if machines can do most cognitive work, the new jobs may also be automatable. Output goes up — dramatically — but wages stop being the way most people share in it. That's why the AGI conversation always arrives at the same question: if the machines do the work, who owns the machines? Proposed answers range from taxation (automation dividends) to public stakes in AI companies to community ownership of the businesses the new economy creates.
What we're doing about it
MeWeBe is built for exactly this transition: a community that collectively backs startups which pledge future profits to the network pool. Today it's a gamified community — points, streaks, a startup league. The goal is the Payout Era: when network startups turn sustained profits, recurring distributions to members — a community-built answer to the ownership question, started before it becomes urgent. See the roadmap →
Keep exploring
What is UBI — and can it actually work? · Join the AGI debate in the forum · Join the network free