AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton expressed in an interview with Reuters on Friday that artificial intelligence could present a “more urgent” threat to humanity than climate change.
Geoffrey Hinton, widely recognized as one of the pioneers of AI, recently announced his departure from Alphabet. This is after a decade with the company. He stated that he wanted to speak openly about the risks associated with the technology without it impacting his former employer.
Hinton’s work has been instrumental in the advancement of contemporary AI systems. In 1986, he co-authored a seminal paper titled “Learning representations by back-propagating errors,” . It marked a significant milestone in the development of neural networks that underpin AI technology. His contributions led to him being awarded the Turing Award in 2018 for his groundbreaking research.
Like an increasing number of technology leaders, Hinton is now publicly expressing concerns about the potential threat posed by AI. The Concern is that machines might surpass human intelligence and gain control over the world.
“I wouldn’t like to devalue climate change”
While acknowledging the importance of addressing climate change, Hinton emphasized that the potential risks associated with AI could be even more pressing. He stated, “I wouldn’t like to devalue climate change. I wouldn’t like to say, ‘You shouldn’t worry about climate change.’ That’s a huge risk too. But I think this might end up being more urgent.”
Hinton further explained that addressing climate change comes with clear recommendations, such as reducing carbon emissions, whereas dealing with the risks of AI is less straightforward and requires careful consideration.
In November, OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, sparked a technological race by making the AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT available to the public. It quickly became the fastest-growing app in history, amassing 100 million monthly users within two months.
In April, Twitter CEO Elon Musk joined thousands in signing an open letter calling for a six-month pause in the development of systems that surpass the capabilities of OpenAI’s recently-launched GPT-4. This move reflects growing concerns and the need for responsible development in the field of AI.