Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the father of artificial intelligence (AI), has resigned from Google, citing worries about the rising hazards connected with advances in the field.
The “Godfather of AI,” in a message to the New York Times, said that he resigned from his post at Google last week to raise awareness about the possible risks involved with the technology he helped create, expressing regret for his achievements.
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton expressed his concerns about the possible hazards posed by AI chatbots, stating that while they do not now have superior intelligence to humans, he expects they will in the near future.
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Chatbots may soon become more intelligent than humans
As a pioneering figure in the field of deep learning and neural networks, Dr Hinton’s research has paved the way for contemporary AI systems like ChatGPT. However, he also cautioned that chatbots could soon surpass the level of knowledge possessed by the human brain.
“Right now, what we’re seeing is things like GPT-4 eclipses a person in the amount of general knowledge it has and it eclipses them by a long way. In terms of reasoning, it’s not as good, but it does already do simple reasoning.
“And given the rate of progress, we expect things to get better quite fast. So we need to worry about that,” Dr Hinton said.
Bad actors may misuse AI
According to Dr. Hinton, there are concerns about the possibility of “bad actors” exploiting AI for nefarious purposes. When asked to elaborate on this point by the BBC, he described a scenario in which a leader like Vladimir Putin could potentially give robots the ability to create their own sub-goals, which may include the desire for greater power.
The scientist cautioned that the intelligence being developed in AI systems is vastly different from human intelligence, as digital systems can have many copies of the same model that can learn separately yet share knowledge instantly. As a result, chatbots can accumulate knowledge at a rate that far surpasses any individual’s ability to learn. His assessment raises concerns about the potential misuse of AI technology in the future.
Dr. Hinton made it clear that he did not wish to criticize Google and acknowledged that the tech giant had acted in a responsible manner. He added that he wanted to share positive remarks about Google and felt that his comments would be more credible as an outsider.
Google’s chief scientist Jeff Dean responded to Dr. Hinton’s resignation by affirming the company’s commitment to responsible AI development. Dean stated that Google remains dedicated to learning about and mitigating emerging risks while also being bold in innovation.
How Hinton formulated AI
Hinton’s groundbreaking research on neural networks played a significant role in the development of contemporary AI systems used in various products today. He worked part-time at Google for ten years to advance the company’s AI initiatives, but he now has reservations about the technology and his contributions to it.
In an interview with the New York Times, Hinton explained that he finds solace in the common rationale that if he hadn’t pursued the research, someone else would have done so.
Geoffrey Hinton took to Twitter on Monday to clarify that he resigned from Google not because he wanted to criticize the company specifically but so he could freely express his concerns about the potential risks associated with AI. He emphasized that Google had acted responsibly, stating in his tweet, “I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly.” He said.