Why AGI timeline research/discourse might be overrated

Abstract

A very common subject of discussion among EAs is “AGI timelines.” Roughly, AGI timelines, as a research or discussion topic, refer to the time that it will take before very general AI systems meriting the moniker “AGI” are built, deployed, etc. (one could flesh this definition out and poke at it in various ways, but I don’t think the details matter much for my thesis here—see “What this post isn’t about” below). After giving some context and scoping, I argue below that while important in absolute terms, improving the quality of AGI timelines isn’t as useful as it may first appear.