New York (CNN) Geoffrey Hinton, “Godfather of AI,” after becoming concerned about how smart the technology was becoming, decided to “blow the whistle” on the technology he helped create, he told CNN on Tuesday.
“I’m a scientist who suddenly realizes these things are getting smarter than we are,” Hinton said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday. “I want to blow the whistle and say we need to get serious about how to stop these things from gaining control over us.”
Hinton’s pioneering work in neural networks shaped the artificial intelligence systems that drive many of today’s products. On Monday, he made headlines for leaving his job at Google, where he had worked for a decade, to speak openly about his growing concerns about technology.
In an interview on Monday The New York Times, Hinton, who first announced his move, said he was concerned about AI’s ability to eliminate jobs and create a world where “truth is no longer known.” He pointed to a staggering pace of progress, far beyond what he and others had expected.
“If it’s a lot smarter than us, it’s going to be really good at manipulation, because it’s going to learn from us, and there are a few examples of it being controlled by a less intelligent thing,” Hinton told Tapper. On Tuesday.
“It knows how to program, so it finds ways to get around the controls we put on it. It finds ways to manipulate people into doing what it wants.”
Hinton isn’t the only tech leader to express concerns about AI. Many community members signed on March letter Artificial intelligence labs must halt training of the most powerful AI systems for at least six months, citing “profound risks to society and humanity.”
letter, Published by the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit supported Written by Elon Musk, it came two weeks after OpenAI declared GPT-4 is an even more powerful version of the technology that powers the viral chatbot ChatGPT. In early tests and a company demo, the GPT-4 was used to draw cases, pass standardized tests, and create a working website from a hand-drawn sketch.
Apple founder Steve Wozniak, one of the letter’s signatories, appeared on “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday and echoed concerns about its potential to spread misinformation.
“Cheating is very easy for someone who wants to cheat on you,” Wozniak told CNN. “We haven’t really made any changes in that regard — we assume the laws we have in place will take care of that.”
Wozniak added that “some type” of restrictions may be needed.
Hinton, for his part, told CNN he did not sign the petition. “I don’t think we can stop progress,” he said. “I’m not signing a petition saying we should stop working on AI, because if people in America stop, people in China won’t.”
But he admits there is no clear answer as to what to do instead.
“It’s not clear to me that we can solve this problem,” Hinton told Tapper. “I believe we need to make a big effort to think of ways to solve the problem. I don’t have a solution right now.”
