Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “Godfather of AI” recently confirmed that he quit his role at Google last week to speak out about the “dangers” of the technology he helped develop. In a statement to the New York Times, Mr Hinton, aged 75, announced his resignation from Google, saying he now regretted his work.
The “Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, stated that he left his position at Google last week in order to speak out against the “dangers” of the technology he helped create.
Geoffrey Hinton, 75, announced his departure from Google in a message to the New York Times, saying he now regretted his work. In order to publicly discuss the dangers of Artificial Intelligence, he tweeted that he has resigned from his position at Google.
In his tweet, Geoffrey Hinton wrote, “In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly.”
In an interview with BBC, he said, “I can now just speak freely about what I think the dangers might be. And some of them are quite scary. Right now, as far as I can tell, they’re not more intelligent than us. But I think they soon may be.”
Notably, Geoffrey Hinton was one of the most respected experts in the field and spent more than a decade working for Google.
When he collaborated with two graduate students in Toronto in 2012, he made his most significant Artificial Intelligence discovery. The group was successful in developing an algorithm that could examine pictures and spot recurring objects like dogs and cars. Geoffrey Hinton collaborated on the project with a student who is now the chief scientist at OpenAI.
According to CNN, his groundbreaking work on neural networks influenced artificial intelligence systems, which are at the heart of many modern technologies like ChatGPT. He did, however, warn the BBC that chatbots might soon surpass the amount of knowledge a human brain can store.
“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,” he noted.
Geoffrey Hinton stated his worries in an interview with the Times on how AI could lead to job losses and a society where many people will “no longer be able to know what is true.”
”It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things,” he added.
Concerns regarding the proliferation of false graphics and text were also voiced by Geoffrey Hinton. He added that another factor in his decision was his age.
“One is, I’m 75. So it’s time to retire. Another was, I actually want to say some good things about Google. And they’re more credible if I don’t work for Google,” he said.
Image Credits: University Of Toronto