Geoffrey Hinton is quitting Google in order to speak freely about the risks of AI. His first concern is not about what the AI might do of its own volition. Hinton’s second concern is that AI will soon eliminate rote jobs. His final concern is that he
is literally worried that an advance Artificial General Intelligence
could eventually “possibly eliminate humanity itself. Hinton mentored A.I. legends like Yann LeCun and Alex Graves, so he knows what he is talking about. Humanity can be destroyed in different ways. I don't think that A.G.I. will necessarily kill us by dropping bombs us. It may not even disable our financial system. It could trigger the end of humanity as we know it by causing humans to think in destructive ways, by exploiting new powers that people didn't have before. Powers to deceive us, to distract us, to demoralize us and to cause harm and grief to each other.
It's barely May, and already we're on track to be the second place year for the most bankruptcies. It's going to be hard to beat the 2008/2009 Great Recession, but who knows?