‘Grandfather or A.I.’ Joins Critical Voices, Quits Google Over Concerns of Development Pace
By Movieguide® Contributor
Geoffrey Hinton, “the grandfather of A.I.,” resigned from Google on May 1st due to major concerns about the pace that A.I. is being developed.
Hinton led a team of graduate students to create the first neural network in 2012 while teaching at the University of Toronto. His neural network mimicked the function of the brain and could train itself to identify common objects after being given sample photos. At the time, many experts doubted this approach to A.I. would lead anywhere. Now it’s the method that all top-of-the-line A.I. products use.
With the help of his students, Hinton created an A.I. company which was later bought by Google for $44 million. Hinton joined Google to continue working on A.I. technology such as Google Bard, Google’s A.I.-powered search engine.
When ChatGPT was released to the public in November of last year with immediate success, Hinton got to see just how far his groundbreaking work had progressed. However, as Microsoft and Google were starting to race to create the strongest A.I., he began to question the ethics of their choice.
Until recently, Google had been careful in their A.I. development, only releasing technology after careful testing. However, recently they have been much less careful as they race to assert their dominance in this lucrative space.
As the technology continues to develop at breakneck speeds, Hinton is worried about the direction A.I. is headed. His immediate concern comes from the use of A.I. in creating false text, images, and videos. He worries that the average person will “not be able to know what is true anymore.”
Later, once the technology is even stronger, his concern lies with the jobs that A.I. will likely replace. The A.I. tools available today complement human workers, but he worries A.I. may soon replace more than just menial tasks.
“The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people – a few people believed that,” Hinton said. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.”
While two major open letters were published earlier this year in which leading experts called the risks of A.I. to the public eye, Hinton refrained from signing either due to still working for Google. Even though he agreed with the letters’ sentiment at the time, he felt it was best to refrain from publicly criticizing Google, or other companies, until he left his job.
Now that he has resigned from Google, Hinton is advocating for the idea of global regulation of A.I., however, he realizes global regulation is not easy to achieve.
“Unlike with nuclear weapons, there is no way of knowing whether companies or countries are working on the technology in secret,” he said. “The best hope is for the world’s leading scientists to collaborate on ways of controlling the technology. I don’t think they should scale this up more until they have understood whether they can control it.”
Movieguide® previously reported on A.I. regulation:
A group of over 1,000 tech experts published an open letter and petition last week, calling for a 6-month pause on AI development to ensure proper ethics and management.
The open letter was signed by tech leaders from around the world, including SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Apple Co-Founder Steve Wosniak, Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, Executive Director of the Center for Humane Technology Tristan Harris and the founder of the AI research institute Mila, Yoshua Benigo.
“Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources,” the letter opens.
“Unfortunately, this level of planning and management is not happening, even though recent months have seen AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control,” it continues.
The letter proposes that all AI labs immediately pause the training of any AI program more powerful than GPT-4, the current leader in the AI space, to allow ethics and regulatory boards to catch up with the rapidly evolving technology. The letter estimates this would require a time of at least 6 months.
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Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
