AI pioneer, Geoffrey Hinton, quits Google amid technological dangers
Recently, the former Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, announced to quit AI, given r AI’s rapid growth and the dangers it presents.
Highlights
- Geoffrey Hinton spoke on the good and bad of AI in the future
- AI Godfather announced to leave Google to speak on the dangers associated with it
- In March this year, several tech giants signed letter to stop the training of AI bots
The 'Godfather of AI,’ Geoffrey Hinton, has recently resigned from his position at Google to speak out against the dangers of the technology he helped to create.
Geoffrey Hinton wary of the technology he helped build
Geoffrey Hinton, a 75-year-old professor at the University of Toronto, and splitted his time between the University and Google from 2013 to 2023, before publicly announcing his resignation from Google last week. At Google, Hinton was known for his work in deep learning and neural networks. The professor took the decision to inform the public of the dangers of AI, without considering much on the impact it creates on Google.
“I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google,” Hinton said in a tweet. “Google has acted very responsibly.”
“I believe that the rapid progress of AI is going to transform society in ways we do not fully understand and not all of the effects are going to be good,” Hinton said in a 2021 commencement address at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in Mumbai.
At the event, he also focused on the advancement of AI in healthcare and creating opportunities for lethal autonomous weapons. “I find this prospect much more immediate and much more terrifying than the prospect of robots taking over, which I think is a very long way off,” stated Hinton.
Several tech giants express concerns over AI’s growth
The decision of Hinton to leave the tech giant comes amid the already looming tensions from several lawmakers and advocacy groups on the potential risks associated with AI-powered chatbots. According to several experts, such bots can spread misinformation and take away human jobs.
In March, some of the well known industry leaders signed a letter with the demand to stop the training of such AI bots for six months, amid risks associated for society and humanity. The letter was released by the Elon Musk-funded Future of Life Institute just two weeks after OpenAI unveiled GPT-4, an improved version of the technology that drives ChatGPT.
In November last year, the buzz surrounding ChatGPT rekindled competition among tech businesses to create and implement comparable AI solutions in their offerings. At the forefront of this development are OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, followed by IBM, Amazon, Baidu, and Tencent who are reportedly developing related technologies.
As per the information, even before stepping aside from Google, Hinton has several times emphasised the good and bad of AI.
