"I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn't done it, somebody else would have," says the Godfather of AI
Geoffrey Hinton also known as the 'Godfather of AI' has cut off the strings that tied him to Google so that he could openly give vent to his views about the downside of the technology that has taken the world by storm.
Hinton, the Godfather of AI, left his position at the
technology giant last week. He has pioneered neural networks of AI systems
widely used in technology products.
He has also contributed to
the company's AI development however, he had maintained the dangers of AI
since he was working at Google as the technology began to advance.
The
Godfather of AI told the New York Times that "I console myself with the
normal excuse: If I hadn't done it, somebody else would have."
While writing on Twitter about his decision, Hinton said he
left Google so he could speak freely about the dangers of AI, rather than
because of a desire to criticise Google specifically.
The
Godfather of AI wrote: "I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI
without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very
responsibly."
Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI
systems, further said advancements made in the field posed "profound risks
to society and humanity".
"Look at how it was five years ago and
how it is now," he was quoted as saying in the New York Times piece,
published on Monday.
"Take the difference and propagate it
forwards. That's scary."
Hinton said that competition between
tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at
dangerous speeds, risking jobs and spreading misinformation.
"It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from
using it for bad things," he told the Times.
In 2022, Google and
OpenAI -- the start-up behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT -- started
building systems using much larger amounts of data than before.
Hinton
told the Times he believed that these systems were eclipsing human
intelligence in some ways because of the amount of data they were
analyzing.
"Maybe what is going on in these systems is actually a
lot better than what is going on in the brain," he told the paper.
While AI has been used to support human workers, the rapid
expansion of chatbots like ChatGPT could put jobs at risk.
AI
"takes away the drudge work" but "might take away more than that", he told
the Times.
The scientist also warned about the potential spread
of misinformation created by AI, telling the Times that the average person
will "not be able to know what is true anymore."
Hinton notified
Google of his resignation last month, the Times reported.
Jeff
Dean, the lead scientist for Google AI, thanked Hinton in a statement to US
media.
