Geoffrey Hinton77 years, it is not just the last winner -together John Hopfield– of the Nobel Prize in Physicsbut also an essential figure in the development of AI -which is why he is nicknamed as the IA sponsor– And one of the voices that most frequently warn of the dangers of a Agi or general artificial intelligence that becomes really intelligent and overcome humans. That scenario, which he describes as ‘Existential threat’ For humanity, it does not seem to achieve it Chatgpt or similar tools, but Current chatbots have already had a very specific effect on their personal life.
In a recent interview with Financial Times, Hinton said that his ex -girlfriend asked a chatbot, without specifying whether it was Chatgpt, Gemini or another, which explain why the researcher had behaved like a ‘rat’ with her.
‘She asked the chatbot to explain how terrible my behavior was and sent it to me. I don’t think it was a rat with her, so I didn’t feel too bad. I met someone I liked the most. You know how these things are, ‘said Hinton.
The anecdote, in addition to being an example of How technology forms the way to communicateit is ironic given the scientist’s profile. The Briton developed in 2012, together with Ilya Sutskever and Alex Krishevskya neuronal network capable of analyzing thousands of photographs and learning by itself to identify common elements in them: animals, people, objects, etc.
This technology is at the base of the operation of chatbots like the ones they later created OpenAI and Googleand for her he received in 2018, along with his colleagues SUTSKEVER and Krishevskyhe Turing Awardconsidered the Nobel of computing. But later has claimed to regret his work And after leaving Google In 2023 -Yes company, DNNRESARCH INC.had been acquired by the Internet giant in 2013-, began to publicly express their concern for the development of AI.
In the interview with Financial Times, Hinton alerted again the impact he will have on the economy and how will generate higher unemployment rates. He also said that the ‘only hope’ for humanity was to design a Ia who behaves with humans as a mother does with her baby ‘Because the mother is very worried about preserving the baby’s life’ and ‘That is the type of relationship to which we must aspire’.