Geoffrey Hinton is one of the most renowned researchers in the field of artificial intelligence. Now the 75-year-old has quit his job at Google so he can speak freely about the risks of artificial intelligence. He told the New York Times in an interview.
A part of him, he told the newspaper, now regrets his life’s work. “I console myself with the usual excuse: if I hadn’t done it, someone else would have.” Until last year, Google used the technology responsibly and was careful not to publish anything that could cause harm.
But that changed after Microsoft added a chatbot to its Bing search engine, thereby challenging Google’s core business. Now Google is in the process of using the same type of technology. The tech giants are locked in a competition that may be unstoppable, Hinton said.
Danger: Fakes and “unexpected behavior”
He worries that the internet will be flooded with fake photos, videos and text and that the average person will no longer be able to “know what’s true”. AI technologies can also transform the job market. Chatbots like ChatGPT could Replace paralegals, personal assistants, translators and others who handle routine tasks.
Future versions of AI systems could pose a threat to humanity because they often learn unexpected behavior from the vast amounts of data they analyze. This becomes a problem when individuals and companies allow AI systems not only to generate their own computer code, but also to run that code themselves.
The full article can be found at New York Times. The Technology Review published a detailed portrait of Hinton in 2021.
(jo)
