Blast and damn 'em

MEET THE HISTORIC PIONEERS WHOSE INVENTIONS BECAME SUCH MASSIVE REGRETS FOR THEM...

★ DUBBED “the Godfather of AI”, Geoffrey Hinton has quit Google claiming he regrets helping to power current systems such as ChatGPT.

As we revealed yesterday, he branded some of the dangers of AI chatbots “quite scary” and warned that artificial intelligence is fast on the way to overtaking human ability to learn, which is worrying news for us all!

★ Here KIM CARR reveals more famous creations that their inventors regretted...

THE ATOMIC BOMB

THEORETICAL physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was part of the Manhattan Project that saw the first nuclear weapons created in World War Two.

The first atomic bomb went off during a test on July 16, 1945, before being used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the following month, killing between 129,000 and 226,000 people – mostly civilians.

Oppenheimer said he felt two bombs going off in the war was unnecessary and that he had blood on his hands.

He moved to work with the US Atomic Energy Commission to control how nuclear weapons were used in future.

RALEIGH CHOPPER

IN the 1970s, it was the musthave bike before the BMX – offering Harley-Davidson-style bars and a low, comfy seat.

But Tom Karen, who came up with the design, went into a spin when discussing it some years later. He said: “It was terribly heavy so you wouldn’t want to ride it very far. The Chopper wasn’t a very good bike.”

AIRPLANE

FLYING high with their idea for the airplane, aviation pioneers brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright wanted a mode of transport which could “bring lasting peace to the Earth”, according to Orville.

But when they gave their inventions to the US army and saw planes being used in World Wars One and Two, it was a case of huge regret to them to see bombs dropping from the skies.

DYNAMITE

SWEDISH chemist Alfred Nobel created the explosive in 1866 to help his family’s mining business.

It was far from his thoughts that dynamite would then be used in war, but it was soon adopted by armies.

Riddled with guilt after an article called him “the merchant of death”, he set up the Nobel Peace Prize to try to make amends after striking the match on an unintentional weapon.

TELEVISION

FEW of us can remember life without a gogglebox, but one of the pioneers behind TV disliked his creation so much he banned his own son from watching.

American inventor Philo Farnsworth had the idea telly would be used to help people learn, but the arrival of shows which did little more than entertain saw him switch off.

LABRADOODLE DOG

AS the puppy breeding manager of the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia, Wally Conron was asked to come up with a non-shedding breed to support a blind woman.

She struggled with guide dogs because her husband was allergic to dog fur. The poodle/gold Labrador retriever cross has since sparked a surge in poodle hybrids.

But many can suffer with joint problems, epilepsy and eye trouble. Feeling ashamed, Conron said: “I opened a Pandora’s box.”

COFFEE CAPSULES

GEORGE Clooney might love his Nespresso machine. But John Sylvan, who came up with the idea for the tiny pots to put the beans in, wishes he hadn’t.

He said: “It’s like a cigarette for coffee – a single serve delivery mechanism for an addictive substance.”

And in many cases they’re terrible for the environment if they’re made from nonrecyclable materials.

AK-47 ASSAULT RIFLE

CHEAP and easy to produce, the rifle was created by Russian general Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947. Developed for the Soviet army, it is now one of the most widely used guns in the world.

He initially said he had no regrets over the weapon, adding: “I sleep soundly.” But he changed his mind six months before his death aged 94 in 2013.

He wrote several letters to the Russian Orthodox Church confessing his guilt and “spiritual pain”.