OMM Redaksiyası
Nobel Prize laureate Geoffrey Hinton has warned against rushing to develop artificial superintelligence. He said scientists still lack sufficient knowledge to guarantee that systems more capable than humans would remain safe and controllable.
The British-Canadian computer scientist, whose work contributed to the foundations of modern artificial intelligence, has become one of the technology’s most prominent critics. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with John Hopfield for work that underpins artificial neural networks and machine learning.
In an interview with The Times, Hinton said it would be “very foolish” to begin developing systems with intellectual abilities superior to those of humans before determining how to control them safely.
“It would be very foolish to start developing superintelligence now. There is no scientific consensus that it can be developed safely and kept under control,” Hinton said.
Hinton’s concerns are not limited to the possibility that more powerful AI systems could make mistakes. In his view, controlling systems more intelligent than humans could become difficult or even impossible. This could pose a direct threat to humanity.
Hinton previously estimated the likelihood that artificial intelligence could cause the extinction of humanity within the next 30 years at between 10% and 20%. He attributed this assessment to the fact that technological development is advancing faster than expected.
One of the scientist’s main concerns is that humanity has never encountered beings more intelligent than itself. Hinton believes the emergence of machines that surpass human cognitive abilities would be fundamentally different from previous technological innovations.
Hinton has also questioned the view that modern AI systems merely reproduce patterns contained in their training data. In his opinion, advanced language models may understand semantic and abstract concepts. This has increased his concerns about the capabilities of such systems.
The scientist has called for oversight of AI development not to be left solely to technology companies’ self-regulation. He stressed that governments and regulatory bodies should play a more active role in the sector.
Hinton compared technological innovation to a car’s accelerator and government regulation to the steering mechanism that determines the vehicle’s direction. In his view, market forces alone cannot eliminate the risks created by artificial intelligence.
He said commercial competition encourages companies to build increasingly powerful systems, while international competition makes it harder to introduce safety measures. Companies may fear that slowing development would give an advantage to rivals operating under different rules.
Hinton has for many years
