Nobel prize winning British professor Geoffrey Hinton, 77, has few regrets after helping introduce AI to the world – even though what he created ‘will put millions out of work’
One of the leading figures behind the creation of AI admits it is likely to cause widespread job losses across the world.
Brit professor Geoffrey Hinton, the architect of ‘neural networks’ used in programmes like ChatGPT, believes the impact the technology will leave millions struggling financially. But he says it is not AI’s fault – and that everyone should blame “the capitalist system”.
The computer scientist, who resigned from Google in 2023, has previously warned about the dangers of machines that can outsmart humans. Now he says many are at risk in the years ahead after being asked if he regrets playing a part in what lies ahead for the world.
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In a gloomy interview with the Financial Times, he said: “What’s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers. It’s going to create massive unemployment and a huge rise in profits. It will make a few people much richer – and most people poorer.”
He went on to question how humans could retain their power when the technology becomes “much smarter” than they are. He said: “There is only one example we know of a much more intelligent being controlled by a much less intelligent being, and that is a mother and baby. If babies couldn’t control their mothers, they would die.”
Prof Hinton’s pioneering research on neural networks – machine learning that mimics the way the human brain works – has paved the way for current AI systems. The Nobel prize winner, who was born in London in 1947 and is now based at University of Toronto in Canada, designed neural networks which are AI systems that are similar to the human brain in the way they learn and process information.
When asked about whether he had any regrets about his work on AI, Prof Hinton said: “There are two kinds of regret – there is regret where you feel guilty because you did something you knew you should not have done, and then then there is regret where you did something that you would do again in the same circumstances.”
He said that he “would do the same again” but was “worried that the overall consequence of this might be systems more intelligent than us that eventually take control”. However, the so-called Godfather of AI says it is going to bring huge benefits, too.
He said that in areas like healthcare, AI will make things “more efficient” with “huge improvements in productivity”. He revealed that he uses Chat GPT 4 “whenever I want to know the answer to anything”, but he doesn’t usually trust the chatbot, “because it can hallucinate”.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences listed key achievements of the two scientists’ work, including improving climate modelling, development of solar cells, and analysis of medical images.