AI 'godfather' Geoffrey Hinton regrets of work as he quits Google

A warning has been issued by a man who is widely regarded as the father of artificial intelligence (AI) about the growing dangers posed by developments in the field. Geoffrey Hinton, aged 75, has resigned from his position at Google and expressed regret about his work, cautioning about the risks associated with AI chatbots.

Dr. Hinton has described some of the dangers of AI chatbots as being "quite scary". While he admits that, at present, these bots are not more intelligent than humans, he believes they soon will be. His pioneering research on deep learning and neural networks has laid the groundwork for current AI systems such as ChatGPT. However, the British-Canadian cognitive psychologist and computer scientist told the BBC that chatbots could soon surpass the amount of information held by the human brain.

Dr. Hinton warned in the New York Times article that "bad actors" could potentially use AI for negative purposes. When asked about this by the BBC, he explained that it was a worst-case scenario, giving the example of a leader like Russian President Vladimir Putin giving robots the ability to create their sub-goals, which could ultimately lead to power-hungry sub-goals.

Dr. Hinton also noted the fundamental differences between biological and digital systems, highlighting the fact that digital systems have multiple copies of the same set of weights and can learn separately but share their knowledge instantly, allowing chatbots to possess more knowledge than any one person.

Aside from his concerns about the risks associated with AI, Dr. Hinton stated that there were several reasons for his resignation from Google, including his age and the desire to speak positively about Google without any perceived conflict of interest. He emphasized that he did not wish to criticize Google and that the company had been responsible in its approach to AI.

In response to Dr. Hinton's departure, Google's chief scientist, Jeff Dean, reiterated the company's commitment to responsible AI development and the importance of balancing innovation with risk management.