Geoffrey Hinton, the “Godfather of AI,” Warns Governments of Potential Dangers of AI

Geoffrey Hinton, a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence, has called on governments to intervene and prevent machines from gaining control over society. Hinton, often referred to as one of the “godfathers” of AI, emphasized the need for regulatory measures to safeguard against the dominance of machines.

Hinton made headlines in May when he announced his resignation after a decade at Google to speak more freely about the dangers of artificial intelligence shortly after the launch of ChatGPT captured the world’s imagination.

The distinguished artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Toronto spoke to a packed audience at the Collision Technology conference in the Canadian city.

Read more: ‘Godfather of AI’ Quits Google, Warns of AI Dangers | Explained

The conference brought together more than 30,000 startup founders, investors and tech workers, most of whom want to learn how to ride the AI wave and not hear lessons about its dangers or calls for government intervention.

“Until AI is smarter than us, I think the people developing it should be encouraged to do a lot of work to understand how it might try to take control away,” Hinton said.

“Right now there are 99 very smart people trying to make AI better and one very smart person trying to figure out how to stop it from taking over and maybe you want to be more balanced,” he said.

Hinton warned that the risks of artificial intelligence should be taken seriously.

“I think it’s important for people to understand that this is not science fiction, this is not just fearmongering,” he stressed. “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, as the huge productivity gains from its adoption would benefit the rich rather than workers.

“Wealth doesn’t go to people who work, it goes to making the rich richer and not poorer, and it’s a very bad society,” he added.

He also noted the danger of “fake news” created by ChatGPT-style bots and said he hoped AI-generated content could be tagged in the same way central banks watermark cash.

“It is very important to try, for example, to mark all fakes as fakes. Whether we can do it technically, I don’t know,” he said.