‘Godfather of A.I.’ Reverses Course, Quits Google to Preach About “Dangers” of Artificial Intelligence

 The “Godfather of Artificial Intelligence”, 75-year old Turing prize winner Geoffrey Hinton joins several other tech pioneers and notables in warning of the impacts of artificial intelligence.  Hinton was partially responsible for the development of the AI technology that is used by the biggest companies in the tech industry according to the New York Times.

On Monday, Hinton tweeted “In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies I left Google so that I could criticize Google.  Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google.  Google has acted very responsibly.”

In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly.

— Geoffrey Hinton (@geoffreyhinton) May 1, 2023

Hinton originally believed that we were 30 to 50 years away from reaching a critical point in AI development, however he now says “I no longer think that.”

He said that a part of him regrets helping with the development of AI and that it could one day replace people in the workforce and help disseminate misinformation.  Hinton told the New York Times, “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.” 

New York Times reports:

Until last year, he said, Google acted as a “proper steward” for the technology, careful not to release something that might cause harm. But now that Microsoft has augmented its Bing search engine with a chatbot — challenging Google’s core business — Google is racing to deploy the same kind of technology. The tech giants are locked in a competition that might be impossible to stop, Dr. Hinton said.

His immediate concern is that the internet will be flooded with false photos, videos and text, and the average person will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”

It’s already here.  And it’s worse than just “false photos, videos and texts.”

In February, a well-known Twitch streamer that goes by the gamer tag “Atrioc” was caught with an open tab for a deepfake porn of a fellow female gamer, QTCinderella.  The mortified female gamer tweeted out the next day:

“The amount of body dysmorphia I’ve experienced since seeing those photos has ruined me.  It’s not as simple as ‘just’ being violated. It’s so much more than that.”

Last month, The Gateway Pundit reported on an open petition signed by several tech moguls calling for at least the temporary suspension of AI development “only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.”  This petition included Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and the CEO of Stability AI among thousands of other tech leaders.