Geoffrey Hinton, who is often referred to as 'the Godfather of A.I.' has left his job at Google. This departure marks an important pivot in the development of AI as Hinton is also banding together with other critics to warn of the potential dangers of AI, according to a report by the New York Times.
The artificial intelligence pioneer created the intellectual foundation for the AI systems that power today's chatbots like ChatGPT. He has worked for Google for over a decade and was one of the most respected voices in the field.
In an interview with The Times, Hinton said that he has quit his job at Google so he can freely speak out about the risks of AI. He explained that a part of him regrets his life’s work. He claims it is hard to see how any of us can prevent bad actors from using AI for harmful purposes.
Hinton cleared the air about Google and its role in AI development. The pioneer of the technology, in a tweet, claimed that he did not leave Google to criticise it, instead, he did that to speak freely about the dangers of AI without having an impact on Google. He claimed Google has acted "very responsibly".
In his tweet, he said, "In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly."
This switch by Hinton marks an important step in the history of deep learning, AI, and its development. He was one of the foremost minds in the world of AI. He was an important part of the breakthrough in AI-driven tasks such as speech recognition and computer vision. In 2018, Hinton, along with two other researchers was awarded 'Nobel Prize of computing'.
AI is being studied and developed since last century but the world has witnessed a sharp spike in its capabilities after the introduction of OpenAI's ChatGPT. Hinton was not one of the signatories demanding a pause on AI development but he concurs with the need of guardrails before developing smarter AI.
Also read: 'A Chernobyl for AI' looms if artificial intelligence is kept unchecked, says AI scientist