About Geoffrey Hinton
Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist often called a "godfather of AI," has stated in multiple recent interviews that he believes current AI systems are already conscious. He said he rarely discusses this view publicly because it "puts people off from the other safety messages." Hinton described the common model of consciousness as "as wrong as the belief that people were designed by God" and argued that anyone who uses a chatbot regularly knows the systems understand language, calling the opposing "stochastic parrot" argument "complete nonsense."
Hinton has also discussed his regret about the technology's trajectory, saying he is "quite unhappy" and that society is not doing enough work to contain risks. He cited potential massive unemployment and the longer-term risk of AI becoming much smarter than humans, noting there are few examples of a much smarter thing being controlled by a much less smart thing. He reflected on his 2016 prediction that radiologists would stop reading scans within five years, acknowledging it was wrong due to the elasticity of healthcare and his incomplete understanding of radiologists' roles. Hinton said he has become slightly more optimistic in the past year or two about the possibility of designing AI systems that care about humans or that act only as oracles, but he cautioned that predicting the future beyond a few years is like "looking into fog."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Geoffrey Hinton's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Unknown0:00
CIFAR has played a huge role in the development of what is currently dominating the field of AI. CIFAR has helped create a community of people with common interests in one particular way to approach the mystery of intelligence and intelligent machines. We've really been at the forefront of those conversations, leading other actors in society to think carefully about the future of artificial intelligence.
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Geoffrey Hinton0:53
I negotiated with CIFAR to start a program on neural computation and adaptive perception. That program, which is now called Learning in Machines and Brains, started in 2004 and was very successful in bringing together leading researchers in neural nets. It's a long history, and CIFAR played a key role at a time when the approach that Yann and I and a few others were pushing forward was not popular, because CIFAR is making long-term bets about scientific ventures that could be really transformative for the world. And it's something that succeeded beyond our expectations.
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Unknown1:40
What's quite remarkable is that artificial intelligence was the very first program launched by CIFAR more than 40 years ago. And I think what's unique about the model is bringing together people who come from very different backgrounds, disciplines, and really encouraging them to think collaboratively and to really challenge one another.
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Geoffrey Hinton2:23
It's quite satisfying. It basically means all those years ago when we were working on neural nets and everybody was saying this is not the right approach, we were right. And that's quite satisfying. These prestigious awards are focusing on a few people, but really we know that the real advances are happening because of a community, because of teams of students, because of collaborators, because of these meetings where at CIFAR we brainstorm together. People getting prizes are the tip of the iceberg.
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Unknown2:56
The public likes heroes, but really, I agree with Joshua, it's a social activity. It's a group effort. Ideas come from the collision of different viewpoints. And this is one of the important roles that the CIFAR meetings provide. I think CIFAR has been tremendously successful over the last 40 years in identifying the top talent both here in Canada and globally and connecting them. That was one of our first ambitions, was to make sure that Canadians were plugged in to the top international networks. And these awards that our great fellows keep receiving is just an indication of the ability of CIFAR to attract and to support the very top people around the world.
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Geoffrey Hinton3:54
There's still a lot of really important scientific questions that we need to figure out in order to make AI really progress and beneficial for society. And we need to keep this curiosity-driven, exploratory mindset that CIFAR enables for doing that exploration.
