ROBOT PIONEER: NOW I’M AFRAID
AI godfather warns over smart tech
THE godfather of AI has warned the technology could become dangerously smarter than humans.
British pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, 75, said he regretted his life’s work as he announced he was leaving Google.
He also urged the world’s leading scientists to come together on ways of controlling artificial intelligence.
As he retired, Dr Hinton said: “I don’t think they should scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it.
“Now, they’re [AI] not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell. But I think they soon may be.”
His research on neural networks and deep learning has paved the way for AI systems such as ChatGPT.
The tool lets people have human-like conversations with technology. Neural networks are similar to the human brain in how they learn and process information.
They enable AIs to learn from experience, which is called deep learning.
But Dr Hinton fears his work could be misused in future. He said: “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.
“This is just a kind of worst-case scenario, kind of a nightmare scenario.
“You can imagine some bad actor like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin deciding to give robots the ability to create their own sub-goals.”
Dr Hinton warned this could then “create sub-goals like, ‘I need to get more power’”.
He told the New York Times: “The kind of intelligence we’re developing is very different from the intelligence we have.
“We’re biological systems, and these are digital systems. The big difference is with digital systems, you have many copies of the same set of weights, the same model of the world.
“And all these copies can learn separately but share their knowledge instantly.
“So it’s as if you had 10,000 people, and whenever one person learnt something, everybody automatically knew it. That’s how these chatbots can know so much more than any one person.”
Last month, tycoon Elon Musk said he will launch a TruthGPT platform.
Dr Hinton, from Wimbledon, South West London, joined Google in 2013 when it bought his firm for £35million.
He defended the tech giant, saying it has been a “proper steward” for how AI should be deployed.
But speaking of his regrets over his work, he added: “I console myself with the normal excuse: ‘If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have’.”
The scientist said one of his main concerns is how easy access to AI could be used to make more fake or fraudulent content.
He said most people would not be able to know what is true any more. Millions have been duped by fake images of Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Pope.
But of more serious concern are deep fake photos showing China invading Taiwan and banks failing under President Joe Biden if he is re-elected.
Dr Hinton also expressed concerns how jobs would be affected by AI.
He said: “It takes away drudge work. It might take away more than that.”
Google said it appreciated Dr Hinton’s breakthroughs and stressed its “responsible approach to AI”.
It added: “We’re continually learning to understand emerging risks while also innovating boldly.”
It is hard to see how you prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things
GEOFFREY HINTON WARNS OVER HOW TECH COULD BE MISUSED IN FUTURE