The Godfather of AI Resigns from Google: Geoffrey Hinton's Warning on the Growing Dangers of AI

Highlights

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• Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in neural networks and deep learning, has resigned from Google after more than 10 years.

• In a statement, Hinton expressed regret for his work and warned about the growing dangers of AI, including the potential for bad actors to exploit the technology for their own gain.

• Hinton's announcement has sparked reactions in the AI community and raised awareness about the ethical and social implications of this rapidly evolving technology.

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Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the "godfather of artificial intelligence" (AI), has announced his resignation from Google, where he worked for more than 10 years. In a statement to the New York Times, he expressed his regret for his work and warned about the growing dangers of AI.

Hinton is a pioneer in the field of neural networks and deep learning, which are the key technologies behind many current AI systems, such as ChatGPT. He told the BBC that some of the dangers of AI chatbots were "quite scary" and that they could soon surpass human intelligence in some ways.

He said that ChatGPT, a powerful AI system that can generate realistic text on any topic, already had more general knowledge than any human and could do simple reasoning. He added that given the rate of progress, he expected things to get better quite fast and that we needed to worry about that.

He also referred to the possibility of "bad actors" who would try to use AI for "bad things", such as giving robots the ability to create their own sub-goals that might conflict with human interests. He gave the example of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a potential bad actor who could exploit AI for his own gain.

He said that he had come to the conclusion that the kind of intelligence we were developing was very different from the intelligence we had. He explained that we were biological systems and these were digital systems, and that the big difference was that with digital systems, you had many copies of the same model of the world that could learn separately but share their knowledge instantly.

He said that this was how these chatbots could know so much more than any one person and that this was a fundamental difference that we needed to understand and address.

Hinton also said that there were several other reasons to quit his job, such as his age (he is 75) and his desire to say some good things about Google, which he said had been very responsible in its approach to AI. He stressed that he did not want to criticize Google and that he appreciated the opportunity to work there.

Google's chief scientist Jeff Dean said in a statement that they remained committed to a responsible approach to AI and that they were continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly.

Hinton's announcement has sparked a lot of reactions in the AI community and beyond, as many see him as a visionary and a leader in the field. His warning about the dangers of AI has also raised awareness and concern about the ethical and social implications of this rapidly evolving technology.