The History of the Term "Super Intelligence"

The history of the term "super intelligence" is older than most people think, and it didn't start with Elon Musk or Silicon Valley. It started in 1863, when the writer Samuel Butler wondered whether machines might one day evolve past us, and grew over 160 years into the AI race we see today.

TL;DR: The idea of super intelligence began in 1863, when Samuel Butler imagined machines evolving past us. I. J. Good gave it shape in 1965 with his "ultraintelligent machine," and Vinge and Kurzweil spread it as the singularity. Nick Bostrom made the word famous in 2014. Since 2015, OpenAI, xAI and Safe Superintelligence Inc. have been racing to build it. Elon Musk helped popularize it but didn't start it.

Before the term existed (1863 to 1956)

In 1863, Samuel Butler wrote "Darwin among the Machines", wondering whether machines might one day evolve past humans. In 1950, Alan Turing asked "Can machines think?" In 1956, the Dartmouth workshop gave artificial intelligence its name.

The history of the term super intelligence begins with an "ultraintelligent machine" (1965)

The mathematician I. J. Good described a machine that could design even better machines and set off an "intelligence explosion." He called it "the last invention that man need ever make."

From the singularity to the mainstream (1993 to 2005)

Vernor Vinge's 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity" predicted smarter-than-human AI within about 30 years. Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity Is Near" (2005) brought the idea to a wide audience.

Bostrom makes "superintelligence" famous (2014)

Nick Bostrom's book "Superintelligence" turned the word into a household term and made AI risk a serious topic. Elon Musk read it and began warning about AI publicly.

The race to build it (2015 to today)

OpenAI was founded in 2015, xAI in 2023, and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence Inc. in 2024. What was once a thought experiment is now a business goal.

What it means for business owners

Real superintelligence isn't here yet, but the AI on the road to it already is. At AI ZILLA, I run a team of AI bots that handle real marketing work for clients, with a human approving every step. If this history got you thinking about what AI could do for your business, we're here to help. Book a call