U.S. media announced on Monday that a computer scientist known as “the godfather of AI” abandoned his job at Google to warn the public about the risks posed by Artificial Intelligence.
In an interview with The New York Times, the scientist who established the groundwork for AI systems, Geoffrey Hinton, warned of “profound risks to society and humanity” faced by the field’s rapid development.
Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now,” he was quoted as saying in the Monday article.
Put the dissimilarity out into the world. The thought of that fills me with dread.
Hinton warned that intense competition among tech firms was leading to the reckless release of innovative AI systems that might threaten jobs and disseminate false information.
”It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from utilising it for terrible purposes,” he told an international magazine.
In 2022, Google and OpenAI, the company behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, began constructing systems with significantly more data than had previously been used.
Hinton told the Times he thought the sheer volume of data being processed by these systems meant they were beginning to rival human intelligence.
According to the report, he speculated that “maybe what is going on in these systems is actually a lot better than what is going on in the mind.”
While AI has been used to assist human labour, the rapid development of chatbots like ChatGPT may threaten human employment.
He told the Times that AI “takes away the drudge work” but “might take away more than that.”
The scientist shows his concerns about AI
The scientist also expressed concern to the Times about the possible spread of misinformation generated by AI, stating that the typical individual will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”
According to the international magazine, Hinton gave Google notice of his resignation last month. Google AI’s head scientist, Jeff Dean, released a statement thanking Hinton to the American press. Further, “as one of the first companies to publish AI Principles, we keep committed to a responsible approach to it,” the statement read.
“We are constantly getting knowledge of new threats while also making bold innovations.”
In March, tech tycoon Elon Musk and other experts urged for a halt to the development of artificial intelligence systems so that their safety could be ensured.
The publication of GPT-4, a significantly more robust version of the technology utilised by ChatGPT, provoked an open letter signed by over a thousand people, including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
Although he did not sign the original letter, Hinton later told The New York Times that researchers shouldn’t “scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it.”
To read our article about “ChatGPT will replace teachers in 18 months, Bill Gates” click here.
