Why the ‘Godfather of AI' decided he had to ‘blow the whistle' on the technology

New York CNN

Geoffrey Hinton - also known as 'the Godfather of AI' - decided to 'blow up' the technology that he developed after becoming concerned about its increasing intelligence, he said on CNN Tuesday.

Hinton said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that he was a scientist and had suddenly realized how intelligent these things were becoming. I want to blow the whistle on this and tell you that we need to be very concerned about stopping these things from taking control of us.

Hinton's groundbreaking work on neural networks has shaped the artificial intelligence systems that power many of today's technologies. He made headlines on Monday for quitting his job at Google, where had worked for over a decade, to openly discuss his growing concerns about the technology.

Hinton, who was the first to report on his decision, said in an interview with The New York Times that he was worried about AI's ability to eliminate jobs, and create a future where people will "not be able know what's true anymore." He also noted the astonishing pace of progress, which was far beyond his and others' expectations.

Hinton said to Tapper that if the robot becomes smarter than humans, it'll be good at manipulating because it'll have learned this from us. There are few examples where a more intelligent being is controlled by something less intelligent,' Hinton explained on Tuesday.

It knows how to program, so it will find ways around the restrictions we place on it. It will find ways to manipulate people into doing what it wants.

Hinton isn't the only tech leader who has expressed concerns about AI. In March, several members of the community sent a letter to artificial intelligence labs asking them to stop training the most powerful AI system for at least six month. They cited 'profound risk to society and mankind'.

The letter was published by Future of Life Institute (a nonprofit supported by Elon Musk) just two weeks after OpenAI released GPT-4, a more powerful version of technology that powers ChatGPT, the viral chatbot. GPT-4 has been used in early tests, as well as a demo by the company, to create a website, draft a lawsuit, and pass standardized exams.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak appeared on CNN This Morning on Tuesday to voice concerns over the potential for misinformation.

Wozniak said to CNN that 'tricking will be much easier for those who wish to trick you'. We're not making any real changes to that aspect - we just assume that the laws that we already have will handle it.

Wozniak said that'some kind' of regulation was probably required.

Hinton told CNN that he had not signed the petition. He said, 'I do not think we can stop progress'. I didn't sign a petition that said we should stop working with AI, because people in China would not stop if Americans did.

He confessed that he didn't have a good answer as to what to do.

Hinton told Tapper that it was not clear to him how we could solve the problem. I think we should make a concerted effort to find a solution. I don't know what to do at the moment.