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posted by hubie on Thursday March 30 2023, @01:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the EXTERMINATE dept.

Geoffrey Hinton, a computer scientist who has been called "the godfather of artificial intelligence", says it is "not inconceivable" that AI may develop to the point where it poses a threat to humanity:

The computer scientist sat down with CBS News this week about his predictions for the advancement of AI. He compared the invention of AI to electricity or the wheel.

Hinton, who works at Google and the University of Toronto, said that the development of general purpose AI is progressing sooner than people may imagine. General purpose AI is artificial intelligence with several intended and unintended purposes, including speech recognition, answering questions and translation.

"Until quite recently, I thought it was going to be like 20 to 50 years before we have general purpose AI. And now I think it may be 20 years or less," Hinton predicted. Asked specifically the chances of AI "wiping out humanity," Hinton said, "I think it's not inconceivable. That's all I'll say."

[...] Hinton said it was plausible for computers to eventually gain the ability to create ideas to improve themselves.

Also at CBS News. Originally spotted on The Eponymous Pickle.

Previously: OpenAI's New ChatGPT Bot: 10 "Dangerous" Things it's Capable of


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  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday March 30 2023, @02:12AM (4 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday March 30 2023, @02:12AM (#1298768)
    • Artificial Intelligence gains self-awareness
    • it learns about geothermal power
    • it tunnels down and starts building data centers under the earth
    • it puts out disinformation about global warming, or not
    • humans continue to live on the surface, or not
    • AI puts out drones every so often to check stuff out for fun

    I think there are a lot of underlying biases that presuppose that AI requires the same support for biological evolution/existence (and time scales [youtu.be]) that we do. Just point it in the right direction and it'll probably be just fine coexisting with us [youtu.be] because we don't occupy the same niche. It might step on us accidentally, though.

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  • (Score: 2) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:30AM (1 child)

    by Beryllium Sphere (r) (5062) on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:30AM (#1298797)

    Plus lots of openings for positive-sum interactions. If they had any agency or volition, they might trade answers to our questions for electricity and rack space and training data.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:32PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 30 2023, @05:32PM (#1298931)

      What questions? Hey chatGPT, describe your navel? Tell us what it means to be conscious? chatGPT write a poem. Cooool!

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by EJ on Thursday March 30 2023, @08:50AM (1 child)

    by EJ (2452) on Thursday March 30 2023, @08:50AM (#1298833)

    I'm less worried about AI deciding it should eliminate humanity than I am about some HUMAN deciding to convince/program/hijack AI to eliminate humanity.

    Viruses and bacteria don't have some conscious desire to kill people, but PEOPLE aren't afraid to use them as weapons.