Google is making sure its use of artificial intelligence is done responsibly and carefully, according to a former engineer at the company. Blake Lemoine, who was fired by Google after claiming an AI chatbot had become sentient, told Futurism that the company behind ChatGPT did not influence Google’s trajectory. Lemoine indicated that Google was working on a project called Bard in mid-2021 and was about to go live by late 2022, yet because of safety concerns he raised, the project was deleted.
Still, he believes that Google has much more advanced technology that has yet to be released and has been meticulously looking into the implications of the technology, such as biases or inaccuracies. Last June, Lemoine said he felt Google’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) gained sentience, something Google disputed and which resulted in him getting fired due to a breach in the company’s confidentiality policy.
Google is one of the world’s leading technology companies, specializing in internet-related services and products such as search, cloud computing, and more. Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 and based in Mountain View, California, it is one of the leading companies in the world and has grown to become a powerhouse in the technology industry.
Blake Lemoine was a former member of Google’s Responsible AI team and was first hired by the company in 2015. He made headlines after publicly claiming that Google’s AI chatbot had gained sentience and was interviewed by outlets including The Washington Post to further explain his viewpoint. As a result of his breach of the company’s confidentially policy, he was dismissed from Google in June.
