Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert, Geoff Hinton, recently left Google and sounded the alarm in a recent interview. Hinton has made groundbreaking contributions to AI, and his departure has stirred up some buzz around the implications of AI. He fears that average people are unable to differentiate between real and artificial content and that AI could render untold numbers of jobs obsolete and potentially threaten more advanced career paths. He also worries that if left unchecked, AI technology could develop to the point of becoming autonomous and weaponizing itself.
To understand the rise of AI and the importance of Hinton’s work, it is necessary to look at his achievements. In 2013, Hinton, alongside two of his students, built a neural network capable of recognizing objects in photos—a breakthrough that prompted Google to acquire their company for a hefty sum of $44 million. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, Hinton, along with two of his contemporaries, won the Turing Award in 2019 for their work on neural networks. As for Google, its AI principles have been increasingly scrutinized, with some claiming that the company does not make good on its promises.
Chatbots, powered by AI, have been taking the internet by storm lately. Instead of finding answers through a list of website links, a chatbot equipped with generative AI can answer questions with human-like sentences by delving deep into vast datasets. Companies like Microsoft and Google have been investing heavily in AI, with the former revamping its Bing search engine to feature the same tech as ChatGPT and the latter launching its own AI-powered chatbot, Bard – unfortunately, the results were lacklustre. Google I/O is set to shed more light on the impact of AI this month on companies, countries, and everyday people. Microsoft is also striving to ensure the responsible use of AI in the future, by introducing guidelines and investing in a more diverse talent pool.
It’s impossible to predict how AI will shape our future, but it is certainly clear that the decisions we make today will have a lasting impact. It’s time for major companies to take accountability for the implications of their AI technology and to ensure that it is used in an ethical and responsible manner.
