Geoffrey Hinton has been dubbed the “Father of Artificial Intelligence” because his research into building neural networks that mimic the human brain using computers is the basis for the AI we use today. Last October, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics with John Hopfield. In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4, Hinton predicted that there is a 10% to 20% chance that humans will become extinct within 30 years due to AI.
This is because, according to him, humans have never encountered an entity that is more intelligent than them. There are not many examples of intelligent entities being controlled by less intelligent entities. The only example Hinton gave was a baby and its mother. This is the second time Hinton has given a similar warning. Last year, the warning was given after he resigned from Google over concerns about the development of AI that was said to be unsafe.
Several AI companies are now racing to be the first to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI will have the ability to think better than humans. Just a few weeks ago DeepMind and OpenAI announced the success of developing the latest AI model that can think for itself before giving answers.
The Terminator movie may be a work of fiction, but the Father of AI now says it could become a reality within just a generation.