Rise of artificial intelligence is inevitable but should not be feared, ‘father of AI’ says
The man once described as the father of artificial intelligence is breaking ranks with many of his contemporaries who are fearful of the AI arms race, saying what is coming is inevitable and we should learn to embrace it.
Prof Jürgen Schmidhuber’s work on neural networks in the 1990s was developed into language-processing models that went on to be used in technologies such as Google Translate and Apple’s Siri. The New York Times in 2016 said when AI matures it might call Schmidhuber “Dad”.
That maturity has arrived, and while some AI pioneers are looking upon their creations in horror – calling for a handbrake on the acceleration and proliferation of the technology – Schmidhuber says those calls are misguided.
The German computer scientist says there is competition between governments, universities and companies all seeking to advance the technology, meaning there is now an AI arms race, whether humanity likes it or not.
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“You cannot stop it,” says Schmidhuber, who is now the director of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology’s AI initiative in Saudi Arabia.
“Surely not on an international level, because one country might may have really different goals from another country. So, of course, they are not going to participate in some sort of moratorium.
“But then I think you also shouldn’t stop it. Because in 95% of all cases, AI research is really about our old motto, which is make human lives longer and healthier and easier.”
Schmidhuber’s position contrasts with a number of his contemporaries, including Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who spectacularly quit Google this week after a decade with the company in order to
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