‘Godfather of AI’ says tech giants can’t profit from their astronomical investments unless human labor is replaced
Computer scientist and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton has doubled down on his warnings about how artificial intelligence will impact the labor market and the role of leading companies in this regard.
One Interview with Bloomberg TV Wall Street Week The obvious way to make money from AI investments, aside from charging fees to use chatbots, is to replace workers with something cheaper, he said Friday.
Hinton, whose work earned him the Nobel Prize and earned him the nickname “Godfather of Artificial Intelligence,” added that although some economists have pointed out that previous disruptive technologies have both destroyed and created jobs, it is not clear to him whether artificial intelligence can do the same.
“I think big companies are betting that AI will lead to mass business change, because that’s where the big money will be,” he warned.
Only four so-called AI hyperscalers—Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon is expected to increase capital spending from $360 billion this year to $420 billion next fiscal year. According to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, OpenAI announced that it has made a total of $1 trillion in infrastructure agreements with artificial intelligence ecosystem companies in recent weeks. Nvidia, broadcom And Seer.
When asked whether such investments would pay off without eliminating jobs, Hinton said: “I believe that cannot happen. I believe that you have to replace human labor to make money.”
Remarks I repeat what you said in Septemberwhen you say Finance Times The claim that AI will “create massive unemployment and a huge increase in profits” and tie this into the capitalist system.
In fact, there is growing evidence that AI is narrowing opportunities, especially entry leveland analysis of business opportunities opened since OpenAI launched ChatGPT, including fell by about 30 percent.
Last week, Amazon announced 14,000 layoffs, mostly middle managers. CEO Andy Jassy said the decision was: Because of “culture”, not artificial intelligenceA. memory In a June post, he predicted that the corporate workforce would be smaller “as we realize efficiency gains from the widespread use of AI across the company.”
Despite the potential downsides for workers, Hinton also sees benefits of AI. When asked if he could go back in time and stop the development of artificial intelligence, he paused and said he didn’t know.
“It’s not like nuclear weapons are just good for bad things,” he explained. “This is a difficult decision because it could have tremendous benefits in healthcare and education. It would provide tremendous benefits, and if you consider that it actually increases productivity in many industries, that should be good.”
Hinton added that the problem ultimately comes not from AI itself, but from “how we organize society.”
This story first appeared on: Fortune.com
