If by intelligence spectrum you mean variations in capability across different generally intelligent minds, such that there can be minds that are dramatically more capable (and thus more dangerous): yes, it’s pretty important.
If it were impossible to make an AI more capable than the most capable human no matter what software or hardware architectures we used, and no matter how much hardware we threw at it, AI risk would be far less concerning.
But it really seems like AI can be smarter than humans. Narrow AIs (like MuZero) already outperform all humans at some tasks, and more general AIs like large language models are making remarkable and somewhat spooky progress.
Focusing on a very simple case, note that using bigger, faster computers tends to let you do more. Video games are a lot more realistic than they used to be. Physics simulators can simulate more. Machine learning involves larger networks. Likewise, you can run the same software faster. Imagine you had an AGI that demonstrated performance nearly identical to that of a reasonably clever human. What happens when you use enough hardware that it runs 1000 times faster than real time, compared to a human? Even if there are no differences in the quality of individual insights or the generality of its thought, just being able to think fast alone is going to make it far, far more capable than a human.
If by intelligence spectrum you mean variations in capability across different generally intelligent minds, such that there can be minds that are dramatically more capable (and thus more dangerous): yes, it’s pretty important.
If it were impossible to make an AI more capable than the most capable human no matter what software or hardware architectures we used, and no matter how much hardware we threw at it, AI risk would be far less concerning.
But it really seems like AI can be smarter than humans. Narrow AIs (like MuZero) already outperform all humans at some tasks, and more general AIs like large language models are making remarkable and somewhat spooky progress.
Focusing on a very simple case, note that using bigger, faster computers tends to let you do more. Video games are a lot more realistic than they used to be. Physics simulators can simulate more. Machine learning involves larger networks. Likewise, you can run the same software faster. Imagine you had an AGI that demonstrated performance nearly identical to that of a reasonably clever human. What happens when you use enough hardware that it runs 1000 times faster than real time, compared to a human? Even if there are no differences in the quality of individual insights or the generality of its thought, just being able to think fast alone is going to make it far, far more capable than a human.