  AI faces a trifecta of grand challenges the Energy Wall, the Alignment
Problem and the Leap from Narrow AI to AGI. Contemporary AI solutions consume
unsustainable amounts of energy during model training and daily operations.
Making things worse, the amount of computation required to train each new AI
model has been doubling every 2 months since 2020, directly translating to
increases in energy consumption. The leap from AI to AGI requires multiple
functional subsystems operating in a balanced manner, which requires a system
architecture. However, the current approach to artificial intelligence lacks
system design; even though system characteristics play a key role in the human
brain from the way it processes information to how it makes decisions.
Similarly, current alignment and AI ethics approaches largely ignore system
design, yet studies show that the brains system architecture plays a critical
role in healthy moral decisions. In this paper, we argue that system design is
critically important in overcoming all three grand challenges. We posit that
system design is the missing piece in overcoming the grand challenges. We
present a Systematic AI Approach for AGI that utilizes system design principles
for AGI, while providing ways to overcome the energy wall and the alignment
challenges.
