Artificial intelligence’s ‘godfather’ reveals why he left Google

Jeffrey Hinton, nicknamed the “father of artificial intelligence,” revealed Monday that he quit his job at Google last week in order to speak publicly about the “dangers” of technology he helped develop.

Hinton’s work on neural networks has shaped artificial intelligence systems that operate many contemporary technical products.

Working part-time at Google for a decade, Hinton contributed to the tech giant’s artificial intelligence development efforts, but since then, he has had concerns about the technology and its role in its development.

“I console myself with the well-known excuse: If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have done it,” Hinton told the New York Times.

Hinton attributed his decision to leave Google to his desire to speak freely about the dangers of AI, not to criticize the company, he tweeted on Monday.

Google’s chief scientist, Jeff Dean, commented on Hinton’s decision by saying: “It has made major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence,” appreciating “a decade of contributions to Google.”

“We remain committed to a responsible approach to artificial intelligence,” Dean said in a statement to CNN. “We’re constantly learning to understand emerging risks as we boldly innovate.”

Hinton’s decision to want to expose his concerns about AI came as an increasing number of lawmakers and groups raised warnings about the possibility that a new set of chatting robots could spread false information and eliminate a large number of jobs.

Hinton is not the first Google employee to warn of the dangers of artificial intelligence. Last July, the company fired an engineer who claimed that an undisclosed intelligence system had become aware, while many in the tech field emphatically refused to confirm what the engineer said.