Geoffrey Hinton, a prominent British scientist, made waves last Monday when he announced he was leaving Google, where he had been conducting research on Machine Learning for the past decade, in order to speak out about his concerns regarding the direction of the technology he helped pioneer. Hinton’s departure has sparked conversation surrounding the growing obsession with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the potential dangers they pose.
More than 27,000 people, including many industry professionals, signed an open letter calling for a pause in the development of advanced AI. However, tech giants, who have a long history of prioritizing corporate interests over societal needs, remain undeterred. Hinton’s intervention is significant, as he is the researcher who unlocked the technology that is now being used for better or for worse.
Hinton comes from a distinguished intellectual pedigree, with his father being a fellow of the Royal Society and his great-great-grandfather being the mathematician George Boole, who invented the logic that underlies digital computing. Hinton has been fascinated by AI and machine learning his entire adult life and has been working towards building machines that can learn. In 1986, he published a groundbreaking paper that showed how neural networks could become constant learners using a technique called “back propagation.” This approach was dubbed “deep learning,” a phrase that caught on with journalists, leading to Hinton being called the “Godfather of AI.”
Despite working at Google for several years, Hinton only recently became vocal about the dangers of the technology he helped create. He is concerned that these machines learn faster and better than humans and are entirely in the hands of a few massive corporations that prioritize competition over societal needs.
In an interview with The Guardian, Hinton stated, “I’ve always been convinced that supervised learning is just a tiny niche of what is possible, and that unsupervised learning is the key to genuine artificial intelligence. But that hasn’t happened, and I think it’s partly because the people who have a lot of data don’t want to give away their secrets.”
Hinton’s departure from Google signals the need for greater conversation and consideration surrounding the future of AI and machine learning. With the current focus on generative AI, chatbots, and large language models, it is critical that industry professionals, researchers, and corporations alike recognize the potential consequences of the technology they are creating.
As Hinton noted, “Advanced AI could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth, and should be planned for and managed with commensurate care and resources.” It is essential to prioritize societal needs over corporate interests and work together to ensure that these technologies are developed and managed responsibly.
