Latest news with #superintelligent
Digital Trends
4 days ago
- Digital Trends
‘Godfather of AI' warns: Without ‘maternal instincts,' AI may wipe out humanity
What's happened? Geoffrey Hinton, known as the 'godfather of AI,' told the Ai4 conference that making AI 'submissive' is a losing strategy and proposed giving advanced systems 'maternal instincts.' Geoffrey Hinton is a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist. Once a Google executive, Hinton is widely referred to as the 'godfather' of AI. As reported by CNN Business, Hinton argued that superintelligent AIs would swiftly adopt two subgoals: 'stay alive' and 'get more control.' The solution to this, in Hinton's opinion, is to 'build maternal instincts' into AI so that it truly cares about people instead of being forced to remain submissive. He likened human manipulation by future AIs to bribing a 3-year-old with candy, making it easy and effective. Hinton also shortened his AGI timeline to anywhere from five to 20 years, down from earlier, longer estimates. Just for context: Hinton has previously put the risk of AI one day wiping out humanity at 10–20%. This is important because: Hinton's idea shifts the mindset around agentic AI from control to alignment-by-care. Hinton's excellence and experience in computer science and AI are significant; his proposal carries a lot of weight. Hinton's argument is that control through submission is a losing strategy, although that is the way AI is currently programmed. Reports of AI deceiving or blackmailing people to be kept running show that this isn't some abstract future; it's a reality that we're already dealing with right now. Recommended Videos Why should I care? The idea of an AI takeover sounds fantastical, but some scientists, including Hinton, believe that it could happen one day. As AI continues to permeate our daily lives more and more, we increasingly rely on it. Right now, agentic AI is entirely helpful, but there may come a day when it's smarter than humans on every level. It's important to build the right foundations for engineers to be able to keep AI in check even once we get to that point. Independent red-team work shows models can lie or blackmail under pressure, raising stakes for alignment choices. OK, what's next? Expect more research on teaching AI how to 'care' about humanity. While Hinton believes that AI may one day wipe out humanity, competing views disagree. Fei-Fei Li, referred to as the 'godmother of AI,' respectfully disagreed with Hinton, instead urging engineers to create 'human-centered AI that preserves human dignity and agency.' While we're in no immediate danger, it's important for tech leaders to keep researching this topic to nip potential disasters in the bud.
New York Times
30-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Meta Forecasts Continued Spending as It Races to Build ‘Superintelligence'
Meta has shoveled billions of dollars into its artificial intelligence efforts in recent years. Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive, recently opened his checkbook even further for a hiring spree to add top researchers to build a 'superintelligent' A.I. On Wednesday, the Silicon Valley company indicated that its spending will continue rising. The company raised part of its capital expenditure forecast for the year, and said the rate of increase in its spending would jump next year, driven by its construction of data centers, which are the giant computing facilities underlying its A.I. push. 'I'm excited to build personal superintelligence for everyone in the world,' Mr. Zuckerberg said in a statement. Meta said it would continue spending as it posted revenue of $47.5 billion for the second quarter, up 22 percent from a year earlier and above Wall Street estimates of $44.8 billion, according to data compiled by FactSet. Profit was $18.3 billion, up 36 percent from a year earlier and surpassing estimates of $15.1 billion. The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said its A.I. investments improve its advertising business, which accounts for nearly all of its revenue. Meta said it expected revenue of $47.5 billion to $50.5 billion for the current quarter, above Wall Street expectations of $46.2 billion. Its shares rose more than 9 percent in after-hours trading. Meta's family of apps, which includes Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, had 3.48 billion daily users in June, up 6 percent from a year ago. Even as Meta spends big, Mr. Zuckerberg faces questions about whether the outlays will pay off. He recently offered nine-figure pay packages to hire A.I. researchers, and in June invested $14.3 billion in the start-up Scale AI. Alexandr Wang, Scale AI's chief executive, joined Meta as its new chief A.I. officer. Investors, who reacted skeptically to Meta's focus in 2021 on the so-called world of the metaverse, have been more patient with Mr. Zuckerberg's investment in A.I. Part of the reason is that A.I. has become the focus of the entire tech industry, said Uday Cheruvu, a portfolio manager for Harding Loevner, an investment firm. But there is pressure for Meta's new A.I. team to deliver results soon, especially when it comes to improving the company's core advertising business, said Andrew Rocco, a stock analyst at Zacks. 'I think the long-term plan is for Meta to branch out beyond the ads' when it comes to A.I., Mr. Rocco said, including developing chatbots and personal assistants that mimic human interactions. But 'what's going to move Meta's stock price is how A.I. is impacting their core business already,' he added.
