Physics Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton and chemistry laureate Demis Hassabis have insisted on a need for strong regulation of artificial intelligence, which played a key role in their awards.
鈥淎I is a very important technology to regulate but I think it鈥檚 very important that we get the regulations right and I think that鈥檚 the hard thing at the moment is it鈥檚 such a fast moving technology,鈥 Hassabis told a news conference in Stockholm.
Hassabis, who jointly won with Americans David Baker and John Jumper for revealing the secrets of proteins through AI, said such evolutionary speed posed a giant challenge.
But the underlying issue, he said, is 鈥渁bout what do we want to use these systems for, how do we want to deploy them and making sure that all of humanity benefits from what these systems can do鈥.
British-Canadian Hinton, considered the 鈥淕odfather of AI,鈥 conceded that 鈥淚 wish I鈥檇 thought about safety earlier,鈥 in allusion to his fears about the potential for AI to ramp up the arms race.
Hinton, who made headlines when he quit Google last year and warned of the dangers machines could one day outsmart people, was awarded his Nobel along with American John Hopfield for work on artificial neural networks.
鈥淕overnments are unwilling to regulate themselves when it comes to lethal autonomous weapons and there is an arms race going on between all the major arms suppliers like the United States, China, Russia, Britain, Israel.
Hassabis said he was recommending governments come up with 鈥渇ast and nimble regulations.鈥
He said he had been advising governments and civil society to build on regulations in domains such as healthcare and transport 鈥渁nd see how the technology develops and then quickly adapt to the way that鈥檚 going鈥.
He told AFP he had had discussions with Elon Musk about the 鈥渆xistential threat鈥 posed by inappropriate use of AI and indicated the tech billionaire was concerned at the potential for AI to wrest control from humans.
He added that he was confident Musk would 鈥渃ommunicate that to Trump and his administration鈥 when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.
But he warned that he was not sure if all of Trump鈥檚 team would necessarily be sufficiently attuned to the risks entailed, adding that he believed Musk himself is not a 鈥減articularly moral鈥 person.
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