One of the creators of artificial intelligence, Geoffrey Hinton, has resigned from Google, warning of a future threat posed to humanity by AI.
Geoffrey Hinton, a leading developer of artificial intelligence (AI) at the US company Google, has quit his job and is now warning of an uncontrollable development of particularly advanced AI. The advances in the field of artificial intelligence mean “serious risks for society and for humanity,” Hinton warned in the “New York Times” on Monday, above all about the spread of misinformation and the danger to jobs.
Hinton said competition is driving tech companies to keep coming up with new AI “at a dangerous pace.” “It’s difficult to imagine how to stop the bad guys from using AI for bad things,” he said.
Google and the company OpenAI – the startup that developed the well-known chatbot ChatGPT – began last year to develop learning systems that use a much larger amount of data than before. Hinton told the New York Times that these systems would eclipse human intelligence in some respects due to the sheer volume of data.
Looking at jobs, Hinton said artificial intelligence could make “slave labor” obsolete. “But she could take away a lot more.”
“The time is now”
According to the newspaper, the developer quit his job at Google last month. His boss at the company, Jeff Dean, said in a statement to US media that he thanked Hinton for his work. Dean emphasized that Google was one of the first companies to publish guidelines for the use of AI. Google continues to feel “obligated to use AI responsibly”. Google is constantly learning as it understands the risks – while continuing to innovate “boldly”.
It was only at the end of March that the technology billionaire Elon Musk and numerous experts called for a break in the development of particularly advanced artificial intelligence. “AI systems with an intelligence that makes people competitive can pose great risks for society and humanity,” they also warned. “Powerful AI systems should only be developed when we are confident that their impacts are positive and their risks are manageable.”
In an open letter to stop AI development, the signatories referred to a sentence by OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to which at some point an “independent” review would be necessary before training new systems could begin. “We agree,” write the authors of the letter. “The time is now.”