Geoffrey Hinton, dubbed “the godfather of ai”, revealed on Monday that he quits his job at “Google” last week, in order to speak publicly about the “risks” of the technology he helped develop.
Hinton’s work on neural networks, artificial intelligence systems that run many of tech products today.
Why did Geoffrey Hinton quit Google?
Hinton contributed through his part-time work at Google for a decade to the development of artificial intelligence for the tech giant, but since then, he has had concerns about this technology and his role in developing it.
In an interview with The New York Times, Hinton said: “I console myself with the well-known excuse: if I hadn’t done it, someone else would have done it.”
Hinton attributed his decision to leave Google to his desire to speak freely about the risks of artificial intelligence, and not to criticize the company, according to a tweet on Monday.
Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist, commented on Hinton’s decision, saying: Hinton “has made foundational breakthroughs in AI”, expressing his appreciation for ““a decade of contributions at Google””.
Dean said in a statement to CNN: “We remain committed to a responsible approach to artificial intelligence. We are constantly learning to understand the emerging risks along with boldly innovating.”
Hinton’s decision to reveal his concerns about artificial intelligence came at a time when an increasing number of lawmakers and groups warned of the possibility of a new group of chatbots spreading misinformation and eliminating a large number of jobs.
Hinton is not the first Google employee to warn of the risks of artificial intelligence. In July, the company fired an engineer who claimed that an undisclosed artificial intelligence system had become conscious, while many in this technical field strongly denied what the engineer said.