Last Update: June 29, 2023, 05:11 AM IST
While Hinton shared the signatories’ concern that AI could prove to be an existential threat to the human race, he disagreed with stopping research. (Image: Reuters file)
Hinton made headlines in May when he announced he was leaving his job after a decade at Google to speak more openly on the dangers of AI.
Geoffrey HintonOne of the so-called “godfathers” of artificial intelligence on Wednesday urged governments to step up and ensure that machines don’t take over society.
Hinton made headlines in May when he announced he was leaving after a decade working at Google to speak more freely on the dangers of AI, soon after the release of ChatGPT captured the world’s imagination .
The highly respected AI scientist, who is based at the University of Toronto, was speaking to a packed audience at the Collision Tech conference in the Canadian city.
Read more: The ‘Godfather of Artificial Intelligence’ Quits Google, Warns About the Dangers of AI | Explained
The conference brought together over 30,000 startup founders, investors and tech sector employees, most of whom wanted to learn how to ride the AI wave and didn’t want to hear any lessons on its dangers or calls for government intervention.
Hinton said, “Before AI gets smarter than us, I think the people developing it should be encouraged to do a lot of work to understand how it might try and take away control. “
“Right now there are 99 very smart people trying to improve AI and one very smart person trying to figure out how to stop it and maybe you want to be more balanced,” he said.
Hinton cautioned that the risks of AI must be taken seriously.
He insisted, “I think it’s important that people understand that this is not science fiction, it is not just scaremongering.” “It’s a real risk that we have to think about, and we have to figure out in advance how to deal with it.” ,
Hinton also expressed concern that AI would deepen inequality, saying the massive productivity gains from its deployment would benefit the wealthy and not workers.
“The money won’t go to people who work, it will go to making the rich richer, not the poor, and it’s a very bad society,” he said.
He also pointed to the danger of “fake news” created by ChatGPT-style bots and said he hoped AI-generated content could be flagged in the same way that central banks watermark cash money.
“For example, it is very important to try to mark as fake everything that is fake. Whether we can technically do that, I don’t know,” he said.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP,
