AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton is very worried about technology taking away jobs

Professor Geoffrey Hinton, the software engineer who is often regarded as the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” has stated that he is very worried about AI taking a lot of mundane jobs globally, according to a new report by BBC. Further, he said that it will be on to the governments to deal with the growing impact of AI and prevent income equality.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) enables all employees to receive a basic salary from the government, regardless of their financial status. Hinton revealed that he had advised policymakers in Downing Street that adopting UBI could be a fruitful decision in the future.

Professor Hinton has himself advocated for a more cautious approach to AI development. He fears that in the next five to twenty years AI could be an extinction-level threat for humans. He has also warned about the growing use of AI chatbots, and said that a “created a form of intelligence that is just better than biological intelligence… That's very worrying for us”.

Developments over the last year showed governments were unwilling to increase the use of AI in the military. Professor Hinton has also said, that the competition to develop products rapidly meant there was a risk tech companies “can autonomously decide to kill people," by increasing their dependence on AI.