'Godfather of AI' warns time is running out to rein in the technology
Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "godfather of artificial intelligence," says there may be only about a year left to put safety measures in place before control is lost entirely.
RastinewsAccording to NBC, Hinton briefed members of the U.S. Congress on artificial intelligence at the invitation of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
He told lawmakers there may be "only about a year left to put the necessary safety measures in place before we lose control of it entirely."
"WE NEED TO SLOW DOWN"
Hinton said estimates for when superintelligence would arrive used to range from 30 to 50 years. "Then those estimates dropped to maybe 10, maybe 20 years. Now people — a lot of researchers — are saying it's just a few years away. Maybe a year, but not much more than a year," he said.
The Nobel-winning scientist said artificial intelligence has reached a point where it is "now designing better AI itself." "So it's what's called recursive self-improvement. If we don't do something, this is going to spiral out of control. We need to slow down," he said.
"HUMANS MUST STAY IN CONTROL"
Democratic Representative Ted Lieu called the situation "a literally recent, insanely crazy, straight-out-of-science-fiction scenario." "At the most basic level, humans should be in control of AI. It shouldn't be the other way around," he said.
Sanders said there is "growing concern" about humanity's future and about building technology that humans won't be able to control. "I think there's a growing sense of urgency among members of Congress that this issue needs to be addressed," he said.
/NTV/