Elon Musk has a moonshot vision of life with AI: The technology will take all our jobs, while a \u201cuniversal high income\u201d will mean anyone can access a theoretical abundance of goods and services. Provided Musk\u2019s lofty dream could even become a reality, there would, of course, be a profound existential reckoning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question will really be one of meaning,\u201d Musk said at the Viva Technology conference<\/a> in May 2024. \u201cIf a computer can do\u2014and the robots can do\u2014everything better than you \u2026 does your life have meaning?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But most industry leaders aren\u2019t asking themselves this question about the endgame of AI, according to Nobel laureate and \u201cgodfather of AI\u201d Geoffrey Hinton. When it comes to developing AI, Big Tech is less interested in the long-term consequences of the technology\u2014and more concerned with quick results.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the owners of the companies, what\u2019s driving the research is short-term profits,\u201d Hinton, a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Toronto, told Fortune.<\/p>\n And for the developers behind the technology, Hinton said, the focus is similarly on the work immediately in front of them, not on the final outcome of the research itself.<\/p>\n \u201cResearchers are interested in solving problems that have their curiosity. It\u2019s not like we start off with the same goal of, what\u2019s the future of humanity going to be?\u201d Hinton said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have these little goals of, how would you make it? Or, how should you make your computer able to recognize things in images? How would you make a computer able to generate convincing videos?\u201d he added. \u201cThat\u2019s really what\u2019s driving the research.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Hinton has long warned about the dangers of AI without guardrails and intentional evolution, estimating a 10% to 20% chance<\/a> of the technology wiping out humans after the development of superintelligence. <\/p>\n In 2023\u201410 years after he sold his neural network company DNNresearch to Google\u2014Hinton left his role<\/a> at the tech giant, wanting to freely speak out about the dangers of the technology and fearing the inability to \u201cprevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.\u201d<\/p>\n Hinton\u2019s AI big picture<\/strong><\/p>\n For Hinton, the dangers of AI fall into two categories: the risk the technology itself poses to the future of humanity, and the consequences of AI being manipulated by people with bad intent.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a big distinction between two different kinds of risk,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s the risk of bad actors misusing AI, and that\u2019s already here. That\u2019s already happening with things like fake videos and cyberattacks, and may happen very soon with viruses. And that\u2019s very different from the risk of AI itself becoming a bad actor.\u201d<\/p>\n Financial institutions like Ant International in Singapore, for example, have sounded the alarms about the proliferation of deepfakes<\/a> increasing the threat of scams or fraud. Tianyi Zhang, general manager of risk management and cybersecurity at Ant International, told Fortune the company found that more than 70% of new enrollments in some markets were potential deepfake attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve identified more than 150 types of deepfake attacks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Beyond advocating for more regulation<\/a>, Hinton\u2019s call to action to address AI\u2019s potential for misdeeds is a steep battle because each problem with the technology requires a discrete solution, he said. He envisions a provenance-like authentication of videos and images in the future that would combat the spread of deepfakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just as printers added names to their works after the advent of the printing press hundreds of years ago, media sources will similarly need to find a way to add their signatures to their authentic works. But Hinton said fixes can only go so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThat problem can probably be solved, but the solution to that problem doesn\u2019t solve the other problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For the risk AI itself poses, Hinton believes tech companies need to fundamentally change how they view their relationship to AI. When AI achieves superintelligence, he said, it will not only surpass human capabilities, but have a strong desire to survive and gain additional control. The current framework around AI\u2014that humans can control the technology\u2014will therefore no longer be relevant.\u00a0<\/p>\n