Schmidhuber: No True AGI Without Self-Replicating Robot Hardware
SchmidhuberAI · x · 2026-09-08
Jürgen Schmidhuber calls claims that "AGI is here" ridiculous. His partial answer, in Section 20 of his DLH survey:
- Humans have imagined physical self-replicating machines (SRMs) for centuries — Descartes, Butler, Capek, von Neumann, Zuse — but no practical design existed until now: AI-controlled general-purpose robots that learn to operate all machines and tools humans operate could also build, operate, and repair the machines needed to make more of themselves, including mining, refining, assembly, and repairing robot factories.
- He stresses that today's AI only works well in the virtual world behind the screen: no AGI without mastery of the physical world, and no true self-improvement without self-improving hardware — self-improving, meta-learning software already exists, but closing the loop in hardware is what matters.
Related event: Schmidhuber Rebukes AGI Claims: True AGI Needs Self-Replicating Robots(4 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Generative Internet Will Hijack Attention, But You'll Gain Fine-Grained Control — jachiam0 · 2026-09-08
- Researcher Predicts Rise of Home Defense Drones — and a Long Policy Fight Over Their Use of Force — jachiam0 · 2026-09-08
- AI-generated 3D assets fuel claim that AAA studios' asset-heavy model is cooked — teortaxesTex · 2026-09-08
- Dev begs people to stop deploying LLM agents to run their social media replies — philnash · 2026-09-08
- People who fear chatbots polluting their minds tend to be stricter about all media — AndyMasley · 2026-09-08
- Bear vs bear: will agents kill dashboard subscriptions or agentic micropayments first? — kleffew94 · 2026-09-08