@miles2045 The word you're looking for is hyperspecialization driven by genetic or iterative algorithms.
Also @dana-edwards is right, general AI isn't possible at all it requires a concept of self or person as well as a concept of "other people" and our relationships with those people and that is a function of the carrier and processing systems, not the algorithms emulating them.
ARNN has potential in this but mimicking biology in silicon is horribly inefficient and until we have a theory of everything we can't really simulate full biologys per se.
@dana-edwards AGI is sci-fi but emulated whole systems intelligence models are a real thing, just really, really computationally expensive.
First steps have already been taken http://www.openworm.org/
Yes I squealed like a schoolgirl getting asked to prom too. :)
I define AGI as the ability to solve a variety of complex problems in a variety of complex environments. A recursively self-improving AGI must be capable of introspection, a sign of "self-awareness." I called the system a Stigmergic AGI because I think calling it a general-purpose self-optimizing swarm intelligence can be misleading, since I am operating under the assumption that stigmergy is a indirect coordination mechanism found in even single unit systems such as in the human brain.
Whether or not AGI is theoretically possible or not, I'll try to cover my thoughts in another post. We already know that general intelligence is possible.