AI robots: Professor Geoffrey Hinton's warning about potential threats is a wake-up call that everyone needs to heed – Scotsman comment

The warning by Professor Geoffrey Hinton, aka the “godfather of artificial intelligence”, that AI could be used by “bad actors… for bad things” – one that he quit his job at Google to deliver – is a wake-up call to the world.

Hinton suggested someone like Vladimir Putin could decide to “give robots the ability to create their own sub-goals” and that a robot might eventually decide to “create sub-goals like ‘I need to get more power’”. Science fiction stories about the ‘rise of the machines’ no longer sound so far-fetched.

The scientist spoke out after business magnate Elon Musk and experts in the field called for a “pause” of at least six months in the development of powerful new AI systems, saying they “should be developed only once we are confident that their effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable”.

And Professor Martin Rees, the UK’s Astronomer Royal and co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, with other scientists, also recently urged the G20 group of countries to set up an International Panel on Technological Change to ensure that what they called “post-human technology” does not lead to “highly suboptimal outcomes”.

Given the extraordinary advances made in AI within the last few years – and equally stunning developments in computing power, particularly regarding quantum computers – it should now be clear that humanity has created something that could turn into an existential threat – as well as a tool of immense power that could help solve many of the world’s most serious problems.

What is also certain is that civic society as a whole – from scientists to moral philosophers, politicians, the media (including The Scotsman) and the public at large – needs to think more deeply about this subject. The advent of social media provides a case study in how long it can take society to react to major technological changes. For years, sickening content has been easily accessible by children with devastating consequences for some, but it is only recently that legislation has started to catch up.

Despite how complicated AI is, we all need to quickly gain a better working understanding of its consequences, good and bad. Leaving it to the experts and hoping for the best may not be enough.