The man described as the godfather of artificial intelligence has left Google, citing concerns about the flow of fake information, videos and images online, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market .
According to recent newspapers, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton who, along with two of his students at the University of Toronto, constructed a neural network in 2012, has departed from Google. He was hired ten years ago by Google to advance the company’s artificial intelligence technology.
According to Hinton, Google used to be seen as the leading technology company until Microsoft incorporated a bot into its Bing search engine, marking a shift in perception. Hinton’s research contributed to the development of modern AI systems, like ChatGPT.
The dangers of artificial intelligence
During an interview with BBC, he expressed concern regarding the potential risks posed by artificial intelligence robots, stating that they can surpass human intelligence and could be manipulated by malicious individuals. He also noted that the intelligence developed by robots is fundamentally different from human intelligence. To illustrate his point, he compared it to a situation where knowledge is shared amongst 10,000 individuals, enabling chatbots to accumulate vast amounts of information.
In the short term, Hinton’s worry is already becoming a reality, as people can no longer distinguish real images, videos and text from the AI-generated fakes that flood the internet.
Hinton also worries that AI will replace jobs like paralegals, personal assistants, and other “routine” jobs, and perhaps even more in the future.
For his part, Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean said in a statement that Google values Hinton’s contributions to the company over the past decade. Spread the principles of artificial intelligence, we remain committed to a responsible approach to artificial intelligence, we are constantly learning to understand emerging risks and innovate boldly as well.”
Artificial intelligence threatens human jobs!
This comes at a time when Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, told Bloomberg that about 30% of administrative jobs in the company can be replaced by artificial intelligence and automation within five years.
Krishna also indicated that employment in areas such as human resources will be limited or will stop, and could lead to the layoff of about 7,800 jobs and the use of artificial intelligence in their place. The total number of employees at IBM is about 260,000 people worldwide.
Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the University of New South Wales’ Institute of Artificial Intelligence , says people should be sure that anything they see online is real.
“Any digital data you see – audio or video – you have to suspect may be fake,” he said.
