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Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

nytimes.com

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Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#41

Post by macintux »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #20
nologic01 wrote: post #4

> the average person will not be able to know what is true anymore We barely held things together as society without AI unleashing cognitive noise at industrial scale. Somehow we must find ways to re-channel the potential of digital technology for the betterment of society, not its annihilation.

I don't think it will be so bad. All Internet comment sections, pictures, video, and really anything on electronic screens will become assumed false by default. Therefore the only use of the Internet and most technology capable of generating audio and video will be entertainment. I already distrust-by-default most of what is online that isn't hard reference material, even if not AI generated.

The cult of Qanon effectively killed any hope I have that people are rational actors when it comes to consuming online content.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#43

Post by rg111 »

nigamanth wrote: post #26

One question for the tech experts, of course people can use AI and technology for bad and illegal activities, but isn't that the case about everything? The person who invented the car didn't think about people using it to smuggle drugs or trample other people on purpose, and the wright brothers didn't think about all the people who would die due to plane crashes. So instead of focusing on the bad that's happening wit…

Quantity is a quality in itself.

In most countries, guns are very strictly controlled. Knives are not. Yet you can kill people with knives as people do.

AI technology is extremely powerful and it can and does enable malicious activities at scale. Scale, previously unthinkable.

As a Research Engineer working in AI (no relation to LLM or AGI), I think that sentient AGI/skynet has a very low, non-zero chance of becoming reality.

But with the AI tech we have today, massive harm can be caused at scale.

The world is far from ready for what bad actors will bring forth enable with the power of AI.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#44

Post by codingdave »

nigamanth wrote: post #26

One question for the tech experts, of course people can use AI and technology for bad and illegal activities, but isn't that the case about everything? The person who invented the car didn't think about people using it to smuggle drugs or trample other people on purpose, and the wright brothers didn't think about all the people who would die due to plane crashes. So instead of focusing on the bad that's happening wit…

I think you are inadvertently making the point that yes, we should be wary: What if, in the early days of cars and planes, people could have foreseen the worst of the problems that would come of those inventions, and slowed down to think through those problems, evaluate the risks, and find ways to mitigate them?

What if we now lived in a world that still had effective transportation, but without lost lives from crashes, without pollution, and without a climate crisis? Would that not be a good thing? Would that not have been worth slowing down even if it took as much as a couple decades?

So maybe it is worth listening to the risks of AI and taking the time now to prevent problems in the future.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#45

Post by kalimanzaro »

tdullien wrote: post #7

When channelling Oppenheimer, it is worth remembering that von Neumann quipped: "Some people profess guilt to claim credit for sin."

Love the parallels people these days draw between OpenAI and Oppenheimer (ok, the Manhattan Project, but maybe thats part why OpenAI call themselves that, to alliterate)

Especially the part where Sama is trying to gather in one place the most talented, uh, anti-fas?

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#46

Post by saalweachter »

williamcotton wrote: post #11

The first step is state-issued public-key cryptographic identification cards. I have been making this argument for years with regards to human actors but perhaps with enough fear of the machines sentiment coursing through society the argument will now be considered. Authentically Human in a World of ChatGPT https://www.williamcotton.com/articles/authentically-human-i... And the article from years ago: The Tyranny of…

Yep.

Being able to opt into a layer of the internet with identifiable authorship -- maybe still pseudonyms, but pseudonyms registered and linked to real-world identities through at least one identifiable real-world actor -- is a long time coming.

It's not for everyone, but a lot of people who have been scammed by anonymous online merchants or targeted by anonymous online harassment and threats would love the option to step away from the cesspit of anonymity and live in a world where bad actors don't require sophisticated digital detectives to track down and prosecute.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#47

Post by [deleted] »

orzig wrote: post #34
nmstoker wrote: post #3

Hinton responded on Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffreyhinton/status/165299357072121037...

Saving a click, because this basically invalidates the NYT headline: > In the NYT today, Cade Metz implies that I left Google so that I could criticize Google. Actually, I left so that I could talk about the dangers of AI without considering how this impacts Google. Google has acted very responsibly.

[deleted]

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#48

Post by cma »

jglamine wrote: post #31
dlkf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cade Metz is the same hack who tried to smear Scott Alexander. This guy is the personification of journalistic malpractice.

Yeah, I was confused because I felt like the article didnt do a good job of clearly stating Hilton's beliefs - it was meandering around. Felt off. Then I saw the Cade Metz byline at the end and became instantly sceptical of everything I had just read. Metz is more interested in pushing a nerative than reporting the truth. He doesn't outright lie, just heavily implys things and frames his articles in a misleading way.

> He doesn't outright lie, just heavily implys things and frames his articles in a misleading way.

Sounds like Scott's methods on neoreactionary and eugenics stuff.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#49

Post by IIAOPSW »

nigamanth wrote: post #26

One question for the tech experts, of course people can use AI and technology for bad and illegal activities, but isn't that the case about everything? The person who invented the car didn't think about people using it to smuggle drugs or trample other people on purpose, and the wright brothers didn't think about all the people who would die due to plane crashes. So instead of focusing on the bad that's happening wit…

The information age was inaugurated with a single question, a revolutionary act, like the starting pistol aimed at Ferdinand, or Martin Luther nailing his thesis to the door. The answer to this first question still unfolds. Very early on everything was known except for what it implied. Wholly modern concepts like unprinted characters and substitution compression were discovered in those first few years. The inventors of the these early devices could not foresee the centuries ahead of them, but they understood full well just how profoundly they had just changed the course of human civilization. The question was .-- .... .- - / .... .- ... / --. --- -.. / .-- .-. --- ..- --. .... - ..--..

I was talking about the telegraph this whole time.

Its not about bad people using the AI. The AI is potentially an agent in the discussion as well, and we don't yet know to what extent and what that entails. We know everything except the implications of what we are doing.

Re: Geoffrey Hinton leaves Google and warns of danger ahead

#50

Post by Fricken »

kalimanzaro wrote: post #45
tdullien wrote: post #7

When channelling Oppenheimer, it is worth remembering that von Neumann quipped: "Some people profess guilt to claim credit for sin."

Love the parallels people these days draw between OpenAI and Oppenheimer (ok, the Manhattan Project, but maybe thats part why OpenAI call themselves that, to alliterate) Especially the part where Sama is trying to gather in one place the most talented, uh, anti-fas?

Maybe we will look back and see it as quite timely that Nolan's biopic on Oppenheimer arrived when it did.
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