Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, has resigned from his part-time position at Google after ten years of working on AI development projects. In a recent tweet, Hinton cited concerns about the dangers posed by AI as the reason for his departure. He stated that he wanted to speak openly about the risks associated with AI, particularly in relation to chatbots becoming more intelligent than humans and being exploited by ‘bad actors.’ Hinton also expressed concerns about the ‘existential risk’ of AI surpassing human intelligence.
Hinton’s contributions to neural network research have been instrumental in developing AI systems used in many of today’s products, including those for speech recognition and object classification. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the first David E. Rumelhart Prize and the IEEE James Clerk Maxwell Gold Medal. Hinton’s recent decision to speak out against AI-powered chatbots comes as concerns are growing among lawmakers, advocacy groups, and tech insiders about the potential for these tools to spread misinformation and displace jobs.
In March, a group of experts, including Elon Musk and fellow AI expert Yoshua Bengio, signed an open letter urging for a pause in developing AI chatbots that were more advanced than ChatGPT until robust safety measures could be implemented. However, Hinton disagreed with the idea of a pause, stating that he believed AI would provide more benefits than risks in the short term. He added that a pause would be difficult due to international competition and that it was the government’s responsibility to regulate the development of AI.
Hinton clarified that his resignation was not due to any criticism of Google and praised the company for its responsible approach to AI. Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently admitted in an interview that he needed to fully understand everything the company’s AI chatbot, Bard, could do, stating concerns about the accelerating pace of AI development. The concern is that we are currently on a speeding train, and there is a worry that one day it will start building its own tracks.
As the development of AI chatbots continues to gather pace, experts are calling for robust safety measures to be put in place to ensure that these tools are not exploited by bad actors or used to spread misinformation. While some, like Hinton, believe that AI will provide more benefits than risks in the short term, there is a growing consensus that a more cautious approach is needed to mitigate the risks associated with AI development.