Godfather of AI regrets his life work and left Google

The development of productive AI is rapid, but equally exponential is the growth of voices opposing its uncontrolled progress and irresponsible use. For several weeks now we've been aware of the open letter signed by big names in the tech and AI space in particular, including Elon Musk, calling for an immediate halt to the development of AI tools until some rules and obligations are put in place, and now comes an interview to raise the level of concern even further.

Just recently Geoffrey Hinton, for many the "godfather" of AI, decided to leave Google so that he would be free to join the fight against his...brainchild. In an interview with The New York Times, Hinton sounded the alarm by stating that in a short time we won't know what's real and what's not. He also said that the competition between technology companies is essentially a race to danger!

Think about where AI was 5 years ago and where we are today. If you extrapolate into the future, you will understand how exponentially it has evolved and how scary that evolution can be.

Not long before he resigned from Google, Hinton discussed the goings on in the AI sector at length with Google CEO Sundar Pichai, but the details of that conversation were never made public. He noted, however, that Google is taking a very responsible and serious approach, and pointed out that until recently it was a pioneer in AI but the game has changed radically with the advent of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's huge investment. Moreover, he admitted that despite pleas it is probably impossible to stop the competition.

The biggest problem with the development of productive AI is misinformation, according to Hinton, at least in the current period we are in. Everyone has access to such tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard, Midjourney) and they produce fake texts, images, videos that are increasingly difficult to tell if they are real. In the future, it claims that many jobs, such as those of personal assistants and translators, may be at risk.

It is worth noting that he has regretted his life's work and even estimated that we would reach this point in 30 to 50 years. He was wrong.