Geoffrey Hinton, a renowned computer scientist with multiple awards and recognition, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI”, is leaving Google with a warning. He has worked in the field of AI for a full 50 years and founded a tech company, with two of his students which Google acquired in 2012.
Hinton had a meeting with Google CEO Sundar Pichai on May 4th, the details of which are unknown. What we do know, however, is that after the meeting, Hinton felt the need to step away from Google on a mission to warn us about the potential dangers that artificial intelligence can bring.
He believes that the potential for AI to reach dangerous levels is growing at a much faster rate than five years ago, and he experiences a great burden for his role in the development of technology that powers the current AI. Despite his regret, he is by no means blaming Google for anything. He sees them as proactive and responsible towards their AI, while other companies like Microsoft, and OpenAI -the driving force behind ChatGPT and Bard – are pushing AI to go faster.
The scientist is now calling people to take a pause and consider the consequences, such as ethics, job loss, and the spread of misinformation, that the current AI race may bring. He aims to prevent this by being vocal on the issue and taking whatever measures possible.
Google is an established tech giant that has been providing the world with top of the line Android phones, as well as introducing innovative solutions to make people’s lives easier. But with great power comes great responsibility, and it’s up to us to keep a close eye on the direction AI takes us in.
Is Geoffrey Hinton is an important figure in the AI field, with a track record that speaks for itself. He and two of his students, Ilya Sutskever and Alex Krizhevsky, founded a tech company that was acquired by Google in 2012, soon after which Hinton decided to work for the tech giant for a decade. Eventually, Sutskever moved on to found another AI-based company, OpenAI, which is now driving the development of ChatGPT and Bard, two of Google’s AI experiments.
Hinton’s decision not to stay with Google and instead warn us about the dangers around artificial intelligence delivers an important message. AI has the potential to both revolutionize and to harm us, and we need to be aware of the choices made in the process of building it.
