Terra Invest’s Ankiti Bose Sets Out a ‘Radically Optimistic’ Case for AGI

Artificial general intelligence could accelerate the search for cures, enable construction in space and under the sea, and expand the limits of human knowledge, according to Ankiti Bose, founding partner of global investment firm Terra Invest.

“I am radically optimistic about AGI because I think it could help us solve problems that have defeated generations of brilliant people,” Bose writes in a commentary published on the firm’s website.

Bose is careful to distinguish today’s tools from the more general systems she anticipates. She cites the 2024 AlphaFold 3 paper in Nature, which expanded structural prediction to complexes involving proteins, DNA, RNA and other molecules, while noting that a structural prediction “is an input to research, not evidence that a treatment works”. The larger prize, she argues, is a much faster cycle of proposing, testing and refining ideas across disciplines.

Her ambition extends into the physical world, from maintaining equipment on the ocean floor to assembling structures in orbit, citing NASA’s use of AI-assisted design for mission hardware. She does not understate the difficulty: “Robots would still need dependable hardware. Designs would still face pressure, corrosion, radiation and all the other ways the physical world checks our confidence.”

Access is central to her case. “The benefits of powerful intelligence should reach people whose ability has always exceeded their resources,” she writes, pointing to students, doctors and small engineering teams who would gain room to attempt more.

The optimism comes with conditions. Systems doing consequential work need rigorous evaluation, clear limits on their authority and accountable people behind them, she argues, and biological misuse and loss of control “deserve serious technical attention”.

But for Bose, caution cuts both ways. “There is also a moral cost to discovering too slowly,” she writes. “People live with diseases we cannot yet treat.”

The commentary ends on a personal note: “I hope this ages well. Ideally, so do I.”

About Terra Invest

Terra Invest (Terra Vision Investments LLC) is a global investment firm where capital works alongside public policy, academia and governance, investing across AI, financial services, healthcare, green energy and infrastructure in India and the Middle East. The firm has offices in London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Miami and Singapore. The full commentaries are available at terra-invest.com/insights.