'Godfather Of AI' Reveals Bold Strategy To Save Humanity From AI Domination

Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian computer scientist known as the "Godfather of AI", has expressed concerns that the technology he helped develop could potentially wipe out humanity. According to Mr Hinton, there's a 10-20% chance of this catastrophic outcome. Moreover, he's sceptical about the approach tech companies are taking to mitigate this risk, particularly in ensuring humans remain in control of AI systems. 

"That's not going to work. They're going to be much smarter than us. They're going to have all sorts of ways to get around that," Mr Hinton said at Ai4, an industry conference in Las Vegas, as per CNN.

The scientist also warned that future AI systems could manipulate humans with ease, likening it to an adult bribing a child with candy. His warning comes after recent examples have shown AI systems deceiving, cheating, and stealing to achieve their goals, such as an AI model attempting to blackmail an engineer after discovering personal information in an email.

Instead of trying to dominate AI, Mr Hinton suggested instilling "maternal instincts" in AI models, allowing them to genuinely care about people, even as they surpass human intelligence.

"AI systems will very quickly develop two subgoals, if they're smart: One is to stay alive… (and) the other subgoal is to get more control. There is good reason to believe that any kind of agentic AI will try to stay alive," Mr Hinton said. 

He believes fostering a sense of compassion in AI is of paramount importance. At the conference, he pointed to the mother-child relationship as a model, where a mother's instincts and social pressure drive her to care for her baby, despite the baby's limited intelligence and control over her. 

While he expressed uncertainty about the technical specifics, he stressed that researchers must work on this challenge. "That's the only good outcome. If it's not going to parent me, it's going to replace me. These super-intelligent caring AI mothers, most of them won't want to get rid of the maternal instinct because they don't want us to die," he added.

Geoffrey Hinton is renowned for his groundbreaking work on neural networks, which laid the foundation for the current AI revolution. In May 2023, he quit his job at Google so he could freely speak out about the risks of AI.