‘Godfather of AI’ Hints at Why He Quit Working on AI with Google

The computer scientist considered the “godfather of AI” just left Google so he can warn the world of the “scary” implications of artificial intelligence.

Google is no longer a “proper steward” for AI, as Microsoft’s Bing chatbox has spurred Google to rush out that technology itself, Hinton insisted. He noted that AI could be used to replace many workers and to flood the internet with fake content. The current AI race between Google and Microsoft will escalate into a global race, Hinton predicted, and could even lead to violent “killer robots.” 

“The idea that this stuff could actually get smarter than people — a few people believed that,” Hinton explained in the interview. “But most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off. I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away. Obviously, I no longer think that.”