• AI pioneer becomes critic
• Danger to humanity
• Google sees itself as responsible
Geoffrey Hinton worked for Google for around ten years. As a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, he worked on algorithms for machine learning, among other things. He also did research in the neural network segment and, according to the US company, made “major breakthroughs in deep learning that have revolutionized speech recognition and object classification”.
But in the meantime, the 75-year-old has given up his job at the internet giant. However, his reputation as the “Godfather of AI” apparently prompted him to find admonishing words about the core of his years of research in an interview. And that, although the technology created with his participation in 2012 is considered the basis for AI systems: together with two students, he developed a neural network that could analyze thousands of photos and teach itself to identify objects and classify them into categories.
AI expert warns of artificial intelligence
Speaking to the New York Times after leaving Google, Hinton expressed remorse for years of service to Google’s AI segment. He gave up his position at Google in order to be able to speak freely about the risks of AI, the expert told the newspaper.
He is critical of the fact that he may have helped artificial intelligence achieve a breakthrough with his technology, but consoles himself “with the usual excuse: If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have done it,” says Hinton.
The AI expert told the New York Times that he was particularly concerned that artificial intelligence could flood the internet with fake photos, videos and text, leaving people unable to judge “what is true”. The self-learning systems that have been developed in the meantime could process such large amounts of data that they could outshine human intelligence in some respects.
Threatening job loss and danger to humanity
In addition, Hinton also warned that AI systems could take over numerous jobs. Chatbots like ChatGPT would support human workers today, but could soon replace paralegals, personal assistants, translators and others who handle routine tasks.
He also believes that AI could become a threat to humanity in the future as it learns unexpected behavior from the vast amounts of data it analyses. This becomes a problem, he said, as individuals and companies allow AI systems not only to generate their own computer code, but to actually execute that code themselves. He dreads the day when truly autonomous weapons — those killer robots — become a reality, Hinton said.
Google thinks it’s responsible
Hinton’s former manager at Google, Jeff Dean, has meanwhile thanked his ex-employee for his services, but emphasized in a press release that Google was one of the first companies to publish guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence. His company also continues to see itself as “obliged to use AI responsibly”. We are continuously learning more about the risks of AI, but will continue to tackle innovations in this area.
Hinton himself does not want his criticism of artificial intelligence to be understood as criticism of his former employer. He left the company to be able to talk about the dangers of AI without having to worry about the consequences for Google. Google acted responsibly, Hinton said.
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.
– Geoffrey Hinton (@geoffreyhinton) May 1, 2023
Crowd of AI critics is growing
In the recent past, numerous people have criticized the current developments in the field of artificial intelligence. billionaire Elon Muskthe co-founder of OpenAI, the company that has promoted the mass adoption of AI with the development of the chatbot ChatGPT, had suggested together with other experts a break in AI development and in an open letter the creation of a precise set of rules for AI -Industry required.
Google boss Sundar Pichai is also critical of AI – not because of the applications themselves, but because society is not yet prepared for them, he recently emphasized.
Editorial office finanzen.net
Leverage must be between 2 and 20
No data
More news about Alphabet A (ex Google)
Image Sources: Den Rise / Shutterstock.com