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Former Google scientist warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence

Kevin J. Jones   By Kevin J. Jones for CNA

(Image: Photo illustration. / Shutterstock)

Denver, Colo., May 7, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).

A leading artificial intelligence researcher some call the “godfather” of AI says the technology is developing at a “scary” rate and warns that it should not expand beyond our ability to control it. He joins the voice of many leaders, including Pope Francis, who want to ensure ethical concerns are “built in” at the technology’s foundation.

Geoffrey Hinton, a longtime researcher at Google newly retired at age 75, has added his voice to those saying that the potential dangers of the new technology deserve scrutiny.

Software like the GPT-4 chatbot system, developed by the San Francisco start-up OpenAI, “eclipses a person in the amount of general knowledge it has and it eclipses them by a long way,” Hinton told BBC News. “In terms of reasoning, it’s not as good, but it does already do simple reasoning.”

“And given the rate of progress, we expect things to get better quite fast. So we need to worry about that,” he said.

Former Google AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton has voiced his concerns about the technology he worked on. Steven Jurvetson|Wikipedia|CC BY 2.0
Former Google AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton has voiced his concerns about the technology he worked on. Steven Jurvetson|Wikipedia|CC BY 2.0

GPT-4 is a large learning model trained on enormous amounts of data and historic and contemporary texts written by human authors. It can produce text on its own and generate blog posts, poems, and computer programs. It can engage in human-like conversations and provide answers to questions, the New York Times reported. However, these systems are still in the early stages of development and show various flaws: Despite speaking in a confident manner, GPT-4 presents incorrect information as factual and makes up information in incidents researchers call “hallucinations.”

Similar systems can generate convincing audio and photorealistic-style images and video, sometimes modeled after real people.

At present, these early versions of artificial intelligence lack self-awareness. There is debate about whether self-awareness is even possible for a digital creation.

Hinton, who now lives in Canada, was a pioneer in the creation and design of “neural networks,” the type of programming infrastructure that helps computers learn new skills and forms of analysis. It is used in many AI systems. He and two collaborators won the top honor of computing, the Turing Award, in 2018.

In Hinton’s analysis, these AI systems in development are very different from the software people are used to using.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that the kind of intelligence we’re developing is very different from the intelligence we have,” he said. Unlike biological intelligences like human beings, there can be many copies of the same digital systems with the same models of the world. Though they can learn separately, they share their knowledge “instantly.”

“So it’s as if you had 10,000 people and whenever one person learned something, everybody automatically knew it. And that’s how these chatbots can know so much more than any one person,” Hinton said.

For Hinton, one “worst case” or “nightmare” scenario is if a robot is developed and given the ability to create its own sub-goals, then decides its goal should be the maximization of its own power.

What are the risks of artificial intelligence?

Other researchers have voiced concern that these AI systems pose risks in the short, medium, and long term. Initial dangers include people wrongly trusting more effective and more convincing disinformation, including false information presented convincingly by an AI. Hoaxers and criminals might create fake phone calls that imitate the voice of a relative who claims to be in danger and needs money quickly.

Pope Francis was recently the subject of a widespread fake computer-generated photo. An image of the pope wearing a stylish white puffer coat went viral on social media sites with many people appearing to mistake the false photo for an authentic snapshot.

If AI successfully automates more tasks currently done by people, unemployment could become an issue, some fear. Internet content moderators, paralegals, personal assistants, and translators could see their jobs under pressure or replaced, the New York Times reported.

Long-term risks, like AI systems escaping human control and even destroying humanity, have long been a staple of science fiction. Some experts cite the unexpected behavior from AI systems currently being developed. If AI systems become interlinked with other internet services and become so powerful they can write their own code to self-modify themselves, out-of-control AI could become a real danger.

Pope Francis, other Catholics speak out

Pope Francis has said that science and technology have practical benefits and are evidence of man’s ability “to participate responsibly in God’s creative action.”

“From this perspective,” the pope said at a March 27 Vatican audience, “I am convinced that the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning has the potential to contribute in a positive way to the future of humanity; we cannot dismiss it.”

“At the same time, I am certain that this potential will be realized only if there is a constant and consistent commitment on the part of those developing these technologies to act ethically and responsibly,” he said.

The remarks came at a Vatican audience with participants in the Minerva Dialogues, a digital technologies-focused gathering of scientists, engineers, business leaders, lawyers, philosophers, Catholic theologians, ethicists, and members of the Roman Curia.

The pope encouraged these leaders to make “the intrinsic dignity of every man and every woman the key criterion” in evaluating emerging technologies.

Pope Francis said he welcomes the regulation of artificial intelligence so that it might contribute to a better world. He also said he is reassured to know many people working on new technologies put ethics, the common good, and the human person at the center. He emphasized his concern that digital technologies are increasing world inequality and reducing the human person to what can be known technologically.

The pontiff emphasized: “A person’s fundamental value cannot be measured by data alone.” Social and economic decision-making should be “cautious” about delegating its judgments to algorithms and the processing of data on an individual’s makeup and prior behavior.

“We cannot allow algorithms to limit or condition respect for human dignity or to exclude compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and above all, the hope that people are able to change,” he said.

At the 2020 assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, academy members joined presidents of IBM and Microsoft to sign a document calling for the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence technologies. The document focused on the ethics of algorithms and the ethical use of artificial intelligence according to the principles of transparency, inclusion, responsibility, impartiality, reliability, security, and privacy.


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28 Comments

  1. It should not expand beyond our ability to control it (Hinton). Enormous danger if we create a major system that manages to avoid our control [I find difficulty with PC security management systems that ‘decide’ to block ordinary functions and resist correction].
    Furthermore, involving AI in ethical decision making would be a mistake. It should never replace that human function. Pope Francis is correct on that issue. Only human intelligence can apprehend the variables. Even if input seems to cover all conditions, assessment may require a creative capacity to discern.
    AI can neutralize our essential function of decision making in determining our future turning us into pathetic drones. Of course that’s immoral.

    • Only those in the state of grace should toy with AI. I’d say the same thing about nuclear weapons. I’d say the same thing about any leader who wants to take us to war. Only the virtuous should handle anything that could be used to promote evil. A knife in the hands of skilled and virtuous surgeon gives glory to God. A street thug wielding a knife to accost someone does not.

    • It is a computer that is programmed with ones and zeros. It cannot take over the planet. And we as humans do not have the ability to make decisions based on humanity in general. And if you use the right technology, Fail-safe modes can be implemented through various channels. Ones that can NOT be corrupted.
      We cannot comprehend the variables, that is why the world is so messed up. The only danger is letting corporations run free with the tech. That is why he Opensource community is lapping everyone. For having a PhD, that is a really closed view. With knowledge comes intelligence, and with that understanding.
      Would you hoke a puppy because you were smarter than it? No.

      • There is no “debate” this side of sanity about whether AI will ever have self-awareness. It won’t. For a period of time in my life, I designed CPUs. One does not have to have such experience to figure out that a pile of electrical circuits, no matter how high the circuits are stacked, can not and never will be able to make value judgments. Silicon and discrete pulses of voltage can not think and never will. The real danger is in a cultural willingness to make concessions of a materialist interpretation of existence making it easier to form utilitarian judgments about the worth of life itself.

        • The fact that you used to work in tech makes it all the more embarrassing for you that you are 100% incorrect. I’ve been working as a software engineer for the past 15 years and have been following tech trends very closely. Your statements are already false TODAY regarding AI’s ability to make judgments. Have you not used ChatGPT yet? The entire industry is blown away by the latest progress in AI, in particular generative AI, and it’s only going to accelerate from here. AGI is absolutely coming and it’s coming VERY very soon.

          Latest version

          • Accidentally left some text for an unfinished thought…

            Latest version of ChatGPT answers riddles, can pass a college biology exam, pass the bar exam, pass the SAT, create apps and websites from scratch, and the list goes on and on. Tell me again that it can’t make judgments so that I can have a good laugh. Or you can say something like “only a human can be intelligent due to an invisible spirit which is magically attached to a person” which would also be funny.

            https://www.businessinsider.com/list-here-are-the-exams-chatgpt-has-passed-so-far-2023-1#gre-4

            It’s like you’re living under a literal rock or something. This is going to be quite entertaining to watch religious people freak out over the even more profound advancements to come.

  2. It’s really fascinating and entertaining to watch Catholics grapple with accelerating tech advancements. The writing is on the wall as to what the end game is here, and also its inevitability at this point. The progress is extremely rapid already and it’s only going to accelerate from here on out.

    On the horizon:

    AGI by 2029
    ASI not very long after that
    LEV by the 2030’s
    Biological Immortality and potentially even mind uploading by 2045

    ALL of this IS coming. If you think abortion/contraception/etc is controversial now, just wait until what’s coming next. Religious people are going to freak out big time after people are able to discard their entire bodies while keeping their minds intact. I’m sure much of it will be banned by the church, like contraception. And I’m sure most Catholics will comply, just as they do with the ban on contraception. (sarcasm)

    God is coming, it’s just not the one you were expecting (because that one doesn’t even exist).

    I’ve got my popcorn out and ready…

    • Astonishing how accurately your innate knowledge of unpredictability of thought patterns is revealing itself in your forecast, and more astonishing that the onlooker can as accurately predict what your responses will be. That we can recognize the exclusive genius that nature has gifted you by evolutionary process as its spokesman.
      Nature is brilliant in keeping the rest of us flummoxed.

    • So unfortunate, the condescending hubris from the naive materialist. I, for one, have just a couple questions about mind uploading.

      1) When the utility companies start announcing rolling blackouts to ration energy supplies, which groups get priority to keep their server farms, ie, “lived experience”, active?

      2) Are there subscription levels for access to different tiers of processing speeds or memory space? I can see the advertisement now. “Uprade to our new Platinum First Class Virtual Life user experience to experience tastes, smells, and colors! We have a 4.5 out of 5 star rating for our high quality tech support, so you can really get the bad taste out of your mouth faster!”

      3) Going through the stages of virtual “life”, does it really show you’ve accomplished much or experienced much when you can just re-set the level and start over again? What about people who don’t even go through the levels, but they download a hack that allows them to input any pre-packaged experience?

      4) How quickly will people be confronted with the existential crisis of a meaningless digital existence and try to enter back into a biological state? Will there be some blank bodies available for digital minds to get re-uploaded? Probably not. The brain patterns of a real human can be recorded and digitized into a computer, but that information can’t be programmed back into a real human; too many physiochemical substrates.

      Only God can create real humans, and this future of yours sounds like a horrifying nightmare; literally Hell.

      I’m happy my faith is in God, and not the tech support hotline.

      • 1. non-scenario. there will be no such scarcity of energy.
        2. non-scenario. again a scarcity mindset.
        3. you’re at the beginning stages of a dilemma that everyone will soon be going through… what does it mean to be human? I don’t have all the answers, or even many of them at all.
        4. on the contrary I argue that biology is a meaningless existence. NOBODY will want to go BACK to biology in the same way that nobody wants to go back to a life expectancy of ~37 as it was in the 1800’s. we all LOVE modern medicine and healthcare and in that respect we are ALREADY transhuman.

        “Only God can create real humans”

        this won’t age well. we’re literally going to create minds and beings millions of times smarter than a human. this will have the profound effect of FORCING your hand by COMPELLING your humility, even though you are unable to muster it at the present and in particular while operating under the delusion that you are the literal center of the universe and the reason for its existence (a perspective of staggering arrogance).

        • Andrew, there’s no limit to imagining possibilities when you deny there is a First Principle. What’s the sense in believing non sense is nonsense? It engenders the fantasy that we can create minds millions of times greater than ourselves contradicting reality. The ability to create such means we already possess what we create. Step out of chaos and reenter the world.

        • So you believe the lightbulb illuminating my image of the Blessed Mother in my living room is quite religious and capable of greater meditative attention than I accord her given its greater proximity?

          In case you missed my prior post, I’ll ask because as an electrical engineer and a physicist, I’m mystified. How does an electrical circuit make value judgments?

    • God is coming, it’s just not the one you were expecting (because that one doesn’t even exist
      Well I hope he treats you a bit kinder than the other secular gods did. They all.seemed to have a penchant for gulags and gas chambers

      • Nothing we haven’t heard before, Alice. Repeating it again and again deprives it of its force, too. The awe we feel when we behold creation never overwhelms us. And inside the beauty of it we also see its humility, inspiring us the more about what’s really going on and about our Maker.

        We needn’t be “so impressed” with AI and those in command of it. One is a tool and the other has shown through history that it falls to exceeding itself and can only be trusted so far. They’d better watch out Who’s coming!

      • Nothing we haven’t heard before, Alice. It depletes its force every time it gets repeated. The awe we feel when we behold creation never overwhelms us; and always renews us. Inside the beauty of it we see its humility, creation’s humility, inspiring us the more about what’s really going on and about our Maker.

        We needn’t be “so impressed” with AI and those in command of it. One is a tool and the other has shown through history that it falls to exceeding itself and can only be trusted so far. No, THEY had better watch out Who’s coming!

  3. One can only imagine the AI systems to be developed by Communist China, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia or perhaps an AI that will declare “I Am” to replace “I am science” as Christian inputs become increasingly marginalized, to precluded to excluded

  4. Remember those horror movies in which a group of teenagers are looking for a place to party and they start moving toward an old, abandoned-looking cabin in the woods, and the whole movie audience is screaming, “Don’t go there! Stay away!” But they go there…

  5. There will always be a need for human translators. I like to translate a line from a famous lyric into another language using machine translation, then have it translated back into English with the same program. My favorite result: “Many times I have walked along this street in the past, but the sidewalk always remained beneath my forefeet.”

  6. “If AI systems become interlinked with other internet services and become so powerful they can write their own code to self-modify themselves, out-of-control AI could become a real danger.”

    I can assure the reader that this will never happen. Only God is capable of creating life. There are reasons that Frankenstein was considered science fiction, and those reasons still exist.

    What could happen is that AI could be used by humans to make decisions (e.g. auto-moderation) in place of humans. There is no reason to believe that it is or ever will be capable of acting like a human, so lawyers would gain a lot of business if AI was implemented on a large scale.

    The late Mortimer Adler wrote at least one books relevant to this issue. “Intellect: Mind over Matter,” and, possibly, “The Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes” are worth considering.

  7. I had to look up the acronyms and read up the meaning in the terminology of each one. Content varies. It’s “big time” stuff for “big timers”; what can you do.

    AGI is Artificial General Intelligence.

    ASI is Artificial Super Intelligence.

    LEV (don’t old your breath) is Longevity Escape Velocity.

    It’s like another fandom world with its hopefuls. When they hit a wall the chatter dies off and then someone comes up with another idea and they get going again.

  8. We cannot install self awareness into a computer. Self awareness belongs exclusively to the human soul created in God’s image. That faculty, enabling us to distinguish self from the known object in the very act of knowing, distinguishes the spiritual from the material. We can install preset judgments to respond to moral questions that mimic human judgment.
    Questioning possibilities life after death, whether there is a first principle [God] that explains creation, whether the universe had a beginning are faculties that transcend the material since they question matter itself.

    • We can, we will, and it’s going to happen by 2029 or even sooner. In case you’ve been living under a rock, we are rapidly running out of things to point to and say “only humans can do that”. Pretty soon that number will hit zero… this is ABSOLUTELY coming.

      Someone even made a countdown website in fact. LOL.

      https://lifearchitect.ai/agi

      • Andrew. You’re likely familiar with TechTarget. The writer said the concept [not realized] uses larger databases which would enable the computer to offer solutions to unknown issues.
        Whether this goal is reached we’re nevertheless creating databases plus diagrams for achieving tasks. However great the database may be compared to most, perhaps all persons it would remain an impersonation of a real person remaining incapable of self consciousness.
        What does self consciousness mean? It’s the capacity to apprehend that you are not the data you perceive or the data you have stored. It is a reflexive awareness of the self in the act of knowing. A technical app cannot be self aware of itself as independent of its material components. For example, you referred to the unpredictability of one thought to another. My argument was based on sequential intent, whereas if that intent were suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted your point has substance. Although that demonstrates our freedom to act independent of determination – as would be the case with technology, which is always determined. That capability requires independence from its components or structure. An independence that is immaterial.

        • Elias and Fr Morello:

          People have been seeing this (the singularity) coming for decades, and now it’s crystal clear they were correct, with the caveat some were perhaps a little too-soon with their timelines. But now we are closer than ever. You can keep talking up your scatterbrained theories as to why a machine can never be intelligence, but you’re simply incorrect. The moment in which their intelligence exceeds our own is IMMINENT. The human epoch is nearly complete.

          This 1993 paper is a must-read:

          https://edoras.sdsu.edu/~vinge/misc/singularity.html

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  1. Former Google scientist warns about the dangers of artificial intelligence – Via Nova
  2. Catholic World Report: Ex-Google Scientist Raises Concerns over Artificial Intelligence Hazard. - Dreaded

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