Our CEO, Dr. @bengoertzel, delivered a keynote at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, examining what it will take to reach AGI beyond scaling large language models. He identified reasoning, persistent memory, continual learning, creativity, and grounding in the world as central capabilities for systems that can generalize beyond their training. “The goal is to make real thinking machines,” he said. Dr. Goertzel described an AGI that can enter a novel environment, work out what is happening, ask questions when necessary, and learn from what it encounters. Such a system needs to form abstractions, generalize from experience, retain what it has learned, and connect knowledge across time. Memory was a major focus. “Lifelong learning depends on lifelong memory,” Dr. Goertzel said. He discussed OmegaClaw, which combines a continuously running agentic loop with symbolic working memory and long-term declarative and episodic memory, allowing an agent to retain experience over extended periods and build knowledge through continued interaction. The keynote also addressed what it means for such a system to be beneficial. “Alignment is ill-posed unless you ask: aligned with what?” Dr. Goertzel noted that human values are dynamic and heterogeneous, making alignment a question that extends beyond instruction following and behavioral constraints. The system's design must account for values, self-understanding, and moral agency. Dr. Goertzel also discussed the architecture being developed through Hyperon and OmegaClaw. Hyperon combines neural, symbolic, and evolutionary paradigms, while OmegaClaw brings persistent symbolic memory into a continuously running agentic system. He described these approaches as part of a broader effort to develop AGI beyond a single-model paradigm. He also addressed the infrastructure underlying AGI development, emphasizing open-source and decentralized approaches that allow a broader range of people and organizations to participate in developing and governing advanced AI systems.