Mr. Hinton said that the average person would no longer know what the truth is. (file)
Washington, United States:
A computer scientist often referred to as the “godfather of artificial intelligence” has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, US media reported on Monday.
Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundational technology for AI systems, told the New York Times that progress made in the field posed “profound risks to society and humanity”.
“Look, how it was five years ago and how it is now,” he was quoted as saying in the article published on Monday.
“Take the gap and push it. It’s scary.”
Hinton said competition among tech giants is prompting companies to release new AI technologies at an alarming pace, putting jobs at risk and spreading misinformation.
“It’s hard to see how you can stop bad actors from using it for bad things,” he told the Times.
In 2022, Google and OpenAI – the start-up behind the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT – began building systems using vastly larger amounts of data than ever before.
Hinton told the Times that he believed these systems were eclipsing human intelligence in some ways because of the amount of data.
“Maybe what’s going on in these systems is actually much finer than what’s going on in the brain,” he told the paper.
While AI has been used to support human workers, the rapid expansion of chatbots like ChatGPT could put jobs at risk.
AI “takes away the hard work” but “can take more than that”, he told the Times.
The scientist also warned about the potential spread of misinformation created by AI, telling the Times that the average person “will no longer be able to know what is true.”
The Times reported that Hinton informed Google of his resignation last month.
Google AI chief scientist Jeff Dean thanked Hinton in a statement to US media.
“As one of the first companies to publish the AI Principles, we are committed to a responsible approach to AI,” the statement said.
“We are constantly learning to adapt to emerging risks while innovating fearlessly.”
In March, tech billionaire Elon Musk and several experts called for a halt to development of AI systems to ensure they are safe.
An open letter signed by over 1,000 people, including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, prompted the release of GPT-4, a more powerful version of the technology used by ChatGPT.
Hinton did not sign that letter at the time, but told The New York Times that scientists “shouldn’t push it any further until they understand whether they can control it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)