Artificial Intelligence and Society: Recognizing its Risks
Geoffrey Hinton, one of the most influential figures in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and often known as the “Godfather of AI” provided some important insight into its potential dangers. At 75 years old, Hinton stressed how AI-generated misinformation on the internet could cause serious issues and even endanger human intelligence itself.
Hinton highlighted how the internet is already filled with misleading images and videos, making it hard for ordinary people to distinguish what is real from what is not. AI technologies such as Google Bard DallE and MidJourney exacerbate this problem further by making possible the creation of falsehoods online.
AI specialist Hinton was initially not signed on as one of the open letters calling for a temporary suspension of AI research. But upon further consideration of potential risks posed by this technology, he now warns about its possible ramifications – in particular whether AI systems might eventually replace many roles such as paralegals, administrative assistants and translators within organizations.
Hinton stated in an interview with BBC: “Now that we know the technology works better than anticipated a few years ago; what steps should be taken to mitigate long-term risks of more intelligent machines taking control,”
Hinton believes that artificial intelligence (AI) systems differ drastically from humans when it comes to their level of intelligence. Digital systems, he asserts, possess the potential of having multiple copies of each weight on each copy; when one learns something new it automatically spreads across copies; according to Hinton this phenomenon may explain why many AI chatbot systems have become so competent and knowledgeable over time.
Hinton became fascinated with neural networks during his graduation days and eventually made significant contributions in this sector. Alongside two of his students from Open AI – Ilya Sutskever and Alex Krishevsky – they developed a neural network capable of distinguishing images depicting common objects such as dogs, cats, flowers, and cars. This project eventually proved its worth.