The “Godfather of AI,” a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI), has left his post at Google to talk more candidly about the risks related to the technology.
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton spent more than ten years working on machine learning algorithms at Google before leaving. According to reports, his lifetime research into neural networks is what gave him the nickname.
In contrast, Hinton clarified in a tweet on May 1 that he quit his job at Google “so that I could talk about the dangers of AI.”
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 the New York Times, he expressed worry that many people won’t “be able to know what is true anymore” due to AI’s use in flooding the internet with fake photographs, videos, and text.
Hinton also worried about AI replacing humans in the workforce. He thinks that when AI learns unexpected behaviors from the vast volumes of data it examines, it will eventually threaten humanity.
In addition, Hinton acknowledged some remorse for his life’s work:
I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.
