The man often considered the "godfather of artificial intelligence" has left Google, citing concerns over the flood of fake information, videos and photos online and the potential for artificial intelligence to upend the job market.
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton left Google this week, the New York Times reported. He joined the Google team a decade ago to help develop artificial intelligence technology. Hinton's research served as the basis for current systems such as ChatGPT.
The 75-year-old said he left to speak more freely about the dangers of artificial intelligence and partly regrets his contribution to the field.
Some of the dangers of AI chatbots were "quite scary", he told the BBC, warning that they could become more intelligent than humans and could be exploited for evil.
"I've come to the conclusion that the kind of intelligence we're developing is very different from the intelligence we have," he said. "So it's like if you had 10,000 people, and whenever one person learned something, they all automatically knew it. So these chatbots can know a lot more than any human.”
Hinton's concern has already become a reality – people will no longer be able to distinguish what is real from photos, videos and texts that are generated by artificial intelligence.
He is worried that this technology will replace many professions and cause damage to the labor market.