Geoffrey Hinton, the “godfather” of artificial intelligence, leaves Google
Google confirmed that Hinton had retired from his role after 10 years overseeing the Google Research team in Toronto.
Geoffrey Hinton, regarded as the “godfather” of artificial intelligence, has left Google!
Hinton, 75, said he retired from Google so that he could speak openly about the potential risks as someone who no longer works for the tech giant.
He has left behind a message sharing his concerns about potential dangers stemming from the same technology he helped to build.
Google computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton made significant contributions to the development of artificial intelligence,
He warns the world of the “existential risk” posed by AI systems to humans.
Some of the dangers of AI chatbots are “quite scary,” Hinton told the BBC. “Right now, they’re not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be.”
In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Hinton pointed to the bad actors that may use AI in ways that could have detrimental impacts on society — such as manipulating elections or instigating violence.
“I want to talk about AI safety issues without having to worry about how it interacts with Google’s business,” he said, adding “As long as I’m paid by Google, I can’t do that.”
Since announcing his departure, Hinton maintained that Google has “acted very responsibly” regarding AI.
He added that there are also “a lot of good things about Google” that he would want to talk about — but those comments would be “much more credible if I’m not at Google anymore.”
