Former Google Vice-President Raises Alarming AI Warning

Professor Geoffrey Hinton, former Google Vice-President also known as the “Godfather of AI” has issued an alarming AI warning. In an interview on BBC Newsnight, the Computer Scientist said robots and AI will hurt society and leave millions of people jobless.

Impact on Jobs

According to the Geoffrey Hinton AI warning, the technology will take up a big chunk of routine jobs. This will lead to the disappearance of numerous mid-level and blue-collar jobs.

“My guess is in between five and 20 years from now there’s a probability of half that we’ll have to confront the problem of AI trying to take over,” Professor Hinton said.

Acknowledging that AI will boost productivity and increase wealth, Professor Hinton noted the money will likely end up with the rich.
“In the systems we live in, that wealth is going to go to the rich and not to the people whose jobs get lost, and that’s going to be very bad for society, I believe,” he warned.

This will only expand income disparities between the rich and the poor. Without jobs, people will have no way of enjoying wealth that comes from the productivity boom.

Need for Income Reforms

According to Professor Hinton, governments will need to mitigate the income inequality challenge by initiating basic income reforms. Such reforms would see every citizen receive a fixed amount of money to meet their basic needs.

“I certainly believe in a universal basic income. If you pay everybody a universal basic income, that solves the problem of them starving and not being able to pay the rent but that doesn’t solve the self-respect problem,’ he noted.

This alarming AI warning comes soon after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that AI will affect up to 40% of jobs globally. In the UK, the Institute of Public Policy Research estimates that AI could lead to the loss of 8 million jobs.

AI Use in Military

The other concern in the Geoffrey Hinton AI warning is the emerging threat to human extinction. Over the past year, governments have shown unwillingness to check AI use in the military. Professor Hinton worries that artificial intelligence is better than biological intelligence and its takeover could pose a threat to the human race.

“AI could evolve to get the motivation to make more of itself and develop a sub-goal of getting control,” he said.

The “Godfather of AI” warns that with the recent application of AI to generate military targets, the technology could autonomously decide to kill people. This hovering risk explains the urgent need to regulate AI use by the military.