Artificial intelligence (AI) could pose a more significant threat to humanity than climate change, according to AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. Hinton, known as one of the “godfathers of AI,” recently left Alphabet after ten years with the company, saying he wanted to speak out about the technology’s risks without affecting his former employer. Hinton’s work is considered essential to the development of modern AI systems, and he was awarded the Turing Award in 2018 for his research breakthroughs.
However, he is now one of several tech leaders expressing concern about the potential threat posed by AI, particularly if machines surpass human intelligence and take control of the planet. “I wouldn’t like to devalue climate change. I wouldn’t like to say, ‘You shouldn’t worry about climate change.’ That’s a huge risk too,” Hinton said. “But I think this might end up being more urgent.” He added, “With climate change, it’s very easy to recommend what you should do: you just stop burning carbon. If you do that, eventually things will be okay. For this, it’s not at all clear what you should do.”
In November, Microsoft-backed OpenAI made AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT available to the public, and it became the fastest-growing app in history, reaching 100 million monthly users in two months. This move marked the beginning of a technological arms race in AI. In April, Twitter CEO Elon Musk joined thousands in signing an open letter calling for a six-month pause in the development of systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, which was recently launched. Signatories included Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque, researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and fellow AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell. While Hinton shares signatories’ concerns that AI may prove to be an existential threat to humankind, he disagreed with pausing research.
“It’s utterly unrealistic,” he said. “I’m in the camp that thinks this is an existential risk, and it’s close enough that we ought to be working very hard right now, and putting a lot of resources into figuring out what we can do about it.”
In response to Musk’s letter, a committee of lawmakers in the European Union called on US President Joe Biden to convene a global summit on the future direction of AI with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The committee agreed on a landmark set of proposals targeting generative AI last week, which would require companies like OpenAI to disclose any copyright material used to train their models.
Meanwhile, Biden held talks with a number of AI company leaders, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, at the White House, promising a “frank and constructive discussion” on the need for companies to be more transparent about their systems. “The tech leaders have the best understanding of it, and the politicians have to be involved,” said Hinton. “It affects us all, so we all have to think about it.”
As AI continues to evolve and become more sophisticated, the debate about its potential risks and benefits will undoubtedly intensify. While some experts believe that AI could revolutionize everything from healthcare to transportation, others worry that it could pose an existential threat to humankind. As Hinton suggests, it’s a complicated issue, and there are no easy solutions. However, it’s clear that the debate about AI’s future direction must involve both tech leaders and politicians, as the technology’s impact will be felt by everyone.