"Godfather of AI" quits Google, fears what he has created

(Eric Louis Haines/OpenAI via AP)

Geoffrey Hinton has long been recognized as one of the “Godfathers” of modern Artificial Intelligence and has won prestigious awards for his groundbreaking work in the field. Up until last month, he had been working for Google, which now owns significant portions of OpenAI and other AI firms. But a few weeks ago he spoke to CEO Sundar Pichai and let them know that he was leaving. Now he feels “free to speak” about his creations and he shared some of his concerns with the New York Times last week. It sounds as if he has some serious regrets about the potential monster that he’s unleashed. (The Verge)

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Geoffrey Hinton, who alongside two other so-called “Godfathers of AI” won the 2018 Turing Award for their foundational work that led to the current boom in artificial intelligence, now says a part of him regrets his life’s work. Hinton recently quit his job at Google in order to speak freely about the risks of AI, according to an interview with the 75-year-old in The New York Times.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” said Hinton, who had been employed by Google for more than a decade. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.”

Hinton wished to clarify that he was not criticizing Google and claims that the company has “acted responsibly.”

So what specific things about these AI systems does Hinton fear? The issues come in three phases, two of which are already either upon us or will be shortly. The third may or may not come further down the line, but not that much further.

His first concern is not about what the AI might do of its own volition. He worries about the “bad actors” who will do bad things with the technology. He’s worried that the web will soon be filled with so much fake content that “nobody will be able to tell what is true anymore.” We recently explored that idea when a reporter for the Wall Street Journal created a complete clone of herself.

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Hinton’s second concern is that AI will soon eliminate rote jobs. That’s already happening in the online world and may spread to many other industries once the AI is fully integrated with industrial robots such as the ones that Amazon uses in its warehouses. ChatGPT still doesn’t seem to be good enough to replace creative writers or innovative designers who work in advertising or other industries. But it’s getting close.

The Godfather’s final concern is “the big one” that we’ve all been watching out for. He is literally worried that an advance Artificial General Intelligence could eventually “possibly eliminate humanity itself.” That used to be the talk of supposed conspiracy theorists, but this is coming from the guy who invented it and shepherded its development. When might that happen? Hinton said he used to think it was 30 to 50 years away, if not longer. But, he says, “Obviously, I no longer think that.

Thanks for the warning, Doctor. Perhaps people will start listening. But it’s probably too late because clones of ChatGPT are already showing up. In any event, you’re still reading the work of actual human beings here at Hot Air and the rest of our Salem outlets. And we’re going to hold the line until the killer robots finally show up and begin kicking in the doors. Please remember that if you’d like to help us keep up the fight and score yourself a bunch of extra content in the process, you can still sign up for one of our VIP memberships. And you’ll receive a 40% discount if you use the promo code “SAVEAMERICA” when you do.

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