An artificial intelligence pioneer nicknamed the "Godfather of Artificial Intelligence" has resigned from his job at big tech company Google so he can speak more openly about the technology's potential dangers.
Before resigning, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton worked at Google for more than ten years, working on machine learning algorithms. He reportedly earned the nickname for his lifelong work on neural networks. However, in a May 1 tweet, Hinton clarified that he left his position at Google "so that I can talk about the dangers of AI."
In an interview with The New York Times, his most immediate concern about AI is using it to flood the internet with fake photos, videos and texts so many people "can no longer know what is real." Hinton's other concerns have to do with AI technology taking over jobs. He believes that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to humans in the future because it learns unexpected behaviors from the vast amounts of data it analyses.
He also expressed concern about the ongoing artificial intelligence arms race to further develop technologies for use in lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS). Hinton also expressed some regrets about his life's work: "I comfort myself with the usual excuse: If I don't do it, someone else will."
In recent months, regulators, lawmakers and tech industry executives have also expressed concern about the development of artificial intelligence. More than 2,600 tech executives and researchers signed an open letter in March urging a moratorium on AI development, citing " profound risks to society and humanity " A group of 12 EU lawmakers signed a similar letter in April, and a recent draft EU bill classifies AI tools according to their level of risk. The UK has also allocated $125 million to support a working group to develop "safe artificial intelligence" .
AI used in fake news campaigns and hoaxes
AI tools have been reported to be used for disinformation, with recent examples of media being tricked into publishing fake news, while one German outlet even used AI to fabricate interviews.
On May 1, Binance claimed it was the victim of a smear campaign launched by ChatGPT and shared evidence of the chatbot claiming that its CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” was a member of the Chinese Communist Youth Organization. The bot linked to a Forbes article and a LinkedIn page from which it claimed it got its information, however, the article does not appear to exist and the LinkedIn profile is not Zhao's. Last week, a group of pranksters also duped several media outlets around the world, including the Daily Mail and The Independent.
The Daily Mail published and later pulled a story about a self-proclaimed Canadian actor named "Saint Von Colucci" who allegedly died after undergoing plastic surgery in order for him to see It looks more like a K-pop star. The news comes from a press release about the actor's death, sent by an entity masquerading as a public relations firm and using what appears to be an AI-generated image. In April, German outlet Die Aktuelle published an interview that used ChatGPT to synthesize a conversation with former Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher, who suffered severe brain damage in a skiing accident in 2013.
