- By Zoe Kleinman
- technology editor
One of the so-called “godfathers” of artificial intelligence (AI) said that if he had known the pace at which artificial intelligence (AI) was evolving, he would have prioritized safety over utility.
Professor Yoshua Bengio told the BBC that he “feels lost” in his life’s work.
Professor Bengio, who has joined the call for AI regulation, said he doesn’t think the military should be empowered with AI.
He is the second of three so-called “godfathers” of AI, known for their pioneering work in the field, and has expressed concerns about the direction and speed of AI’s development.
In an interview with the BBC, Professor Bengio said his life’s work, which gave him direction and a sense of identity, was no longer clear to him.
“Emotionally speaking, it’s challenging for the people on the inside.” [the AI sector],” He said.
“You could say you are lost, but you have to keep moving forward and encourage others to engage, discuss, and think together.”
Canadians signed two recent statements to draw attention to the future risks of AI. Some academics and industry experts believe that, depending on the pace of development, malicious AI could be introduced by malicious actors, actively causing harm or choosing to do it themselves. I warn you that it is possible.
Twitter and Tesla owner Elon Musk has also expressed concern.
“I don’t think AI is going to destroy humanity, but we could be under tight control,” he said at a recent Wall Street Journal event.
“The odds of destroying humanity are slim, close to zero, but not impossible.”
Another “Godfather” Dr. Jeffrey Hinton signed the same warning as Professor Bengio and recently retired from Google, saying he regretted his job.
Professor Bengio told the BBC that all companies developing powerful AI products should register.
“Governments need to track what they are doing and they need to be able to audit it. It’s about,” he said.
“We also need to get people who are close to these systems to have some sort of credential. We also need ethical training here. Computer scientists don’t usually get that, by the way. ”
However, not everyone in the field believes AI will destroy humanity.
A third “godfather”, Professor Yann LeCun, who shared the prestigious Turing Award with Bengio and Hinton for his pioneering work, said the apocalyptic warnings were overblown.
Some argue that there are more pressing issues that need to be addressed.
Dr. Sasha Luccioni, a research scientist at AI company Hugging Face, said society should focus on issues such as AI bias, predictive policing and the spread of misinformation by chatbots, saying these were “very specific.” No harm,” he said.
“We should focus on that rather than the hypothetical risk of AI destroying humanity,” she added.
There are already many examples of how AI benefits society. Last week, an AI tool discovered a new antibiotic, and thanks to an AI-developed microchip, a paralyzed man could walk again just by thinking.
But this goes hand in hand with concerns about the far-reaching impact of AI on national economies. Companies are already replacing human staff with AI tools, which is contributing to ongoing strikes by Hollywood screenwriters.
“It’s never too late to improve,” Bengio says of the state of AI. “It’s just like climate change.
“We have put so much carbon into the atmosphere that we would rather not, but let’s see what we can do now.”
