India, Nov. 14 -- Artificial intelligence (AI) systems that learn by imitating humans may also be picking up the human instinct for "self-preservation", AI pioneer Stuart Russell said Saturday at the 24th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

Russell, Director, Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, and Professor, UC Berkeley, was speaking to Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Peak XV Partners. He spoke at length about the risks of AI systems and the buzzword of the moment: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Russell said AGI, which may be about one to four years away, would broadly mean a system matching or exceeding human capabilities "in all aspects and dimensions". He added that the term has several "functional meanings...