Artificial Intelligence: Is It Out Of Control?

The world has begun to embrace artificial intelligence (A.I.) — but, is it too much too soon?

Technology :
It started with Apple’s Siri, Google’s Hey Google, and Amazon’s Alexa. Simple and mundane tasks were being handled by harmless robots. Then, it morphed into robots that could vacuum the floor, cars that could drive themselves, and ChatGPT which could write an entire thesis simply by the touch of a button.

However, it has since grown exponentially in just the past few months.

Last week, The New York Times reported that scientists from the University of Texas have discovered a way for artificial intelligence to translate private thoughts and read the minds of humans simply by measuring the flow of blood to different regions in the brain. Additionally, bad actors have already discovered how to use A.I. to their advantage as a tool for misinformation and scams.

Now, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton — who is widely referred to as the ‘godfather’ of A.I. — believes we’ve already gone too far too soon and are headed for danger and destruction.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton said during a recent interview while admitting that he now regrets his life’s work.

Dr. Hinton has officially joined a growing chorus of critics who believe that companies are making a grave mistake by racing to create products based on generative artificial intelligence. In fact, he’s so emphatic about the dangers of A.I. that he quit his job at Google (where he has worked for more than a decade and was one of the most respected voices in the field) just to be able to freely speak out about the risks of artificial intelligence.

Interestingly, Dr. Hinton is not alone.

More than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers signed an open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of new systems because A.I. technologies pose “profound risks to society and humanity.” If that wasn’t enough, 19 current and former leaders of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (a 40-year-old academic society) released their own letter warning of the risks of A.I.

The fear is that the technology is growing much too fast and doesn’t have proper safeguards in place to protect us. Or, to put it bluntly, these “robots” being created could soon begin to think for themselves, eclipse human intelligence, and eventually wipe out humankind.

“Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now,” Dr. Hinton said of A.I. technology. “Take the difference and propagate it forward. That’s scary.”

With Pandora already out of the box, should we be paying closer attention? And, more importantly, if what we’ve already done is too much too soon, is our response already too little too late?

OK WASSUP! discusses Technology News:
Is artificial intelligence already a bad thing?