Geoffrey Hinton, a prominent figure known as the pioneer of artificial intelligence (AI), has resigned from his position, citing concerns about the increasing risks associated with advancements in the field.
In a statement to the New York Times, the 75-year-old expressed regret over his past work. Hinton revealed his fears about the potential dangers posed by AI chatbots, which he described as “quite alarming.”
While he believes that AI chatbots are not currently more intelligent than humans, he warns that they may soon surpass us.
Dr. Hinton’s groundbreaking work on deep learning and neural networks has paved the way for current AI systems, such as ChatGPT. However, the British-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist has warned that these chatbots may soon surpass the level of information that the human brain can hold.
He cited the example of GPT-4, which already surpasses a person’s general knowledge by a significant margin. While it may not be as good as humans at reasoning, it is already capable of basic reasoning. Dr.
Hinton believes that with the rate of progress, AI systems will continue to improve at an alarming rate, and we need to be concerned about their potential to overtake human intelligence.
In a New York Times article, Dr. Hinton raised concerns about the potential misuse of AI technology by “bad actors.”
When questioned about this, he gave an example of a hypothetical situation where Russian President Vladimir Putin gave robots the ability to create their sub-goals, which could lead to the machines pursuing their own objectives, such as gaining more power.
Dr.Hinton emphasized that the intelligence we are developing through AI is fundamentally different from human intelligence, as it is based on digital systems with multiple copies of the same set of weights, allowing them to learn separately but share their knowledge instantly.
He also mentioned that there were other reasons for his resignation, such as his age and the desire to express his opinions about Google independently.
However, he praised Google for its responsible approach to AI, and the tech giant’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean reiterated their commitment to innovation with a responsible approach to emerging risks.
