‘Godfather of AI’, Geoffrey Hinton Warns Of AI Escaping Human Control

In an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, CBS News, Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called “Godfather of AI,” shared his insights about what artificial intelligence technology could mean for humanity in the coming years.

Hinton did mention that AI has already demonstrated significant advantages in healthcare, particularly in tasks such as identifying and comprehending medical images, as well as aiding in drug development.

He pointed to one big potential risk as the systems get smarter. “One of the ways these systems might escape control is by writing their own computer code to modify themselves. And that’s something we need to seriously worry about,” he said.

Hinton added that as AI continues to absorb an increasing amount of data, including renowned literary works, election-related media coverage, and everything in between, its proficiency in manipulating people will only continue to improve.

The Godfather of AI believed this time to be “a bit of a turning point”, where humanity may have to face the decision of whether to develop these things further and how people should “protect themselves” if they do.

Hinton is a British computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, best known for his contributions to AI. He dedicated ten years to his career at Google before departing in May of this year, citing apprehensions regarding AI's potential risks.