"For the past several years, Yoshua Bengio, a professor at the Université de Montréal whose work helped lay the foundations of modern deep learning, has been one of the AI industry's most alarmed voices, warning that superintelligent systems could pose an existential threat to humanity-particularly because of their potential for self-preservation and deception. In a new interview with Fortune, however, the deep-learning pioneer says his latest research points to a technical solution for AI's biggest safety risks."
"Bengio's nonprofit, LawZero, which launched in June, was created to develop new technical approaches to AI safety based on research led by Bengio. Today, the organization-backed by the Gates Foundation and existential-risk funders such as Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy) and the Future of Life Institute-announced that it has appointed a high-profile board and global advisory council to guide Bengio's research, and advance what he calls a "moral mission" to develop AI as a global public good."
"Bengio's shift to a more optimistic outlook is striking. Bengio shared the Turing Award, computer science's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, with fellow AI 'godfathers' Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun in 2019. But like Hinton, he grew increasingly concerned about the risks of ever more powerful AI systems in the wake of ChatGPT's launch in November 2022. LeCun, by contrast, has said he does not think today's AI systems pose catastrophic risks to humanity. Three years ago, Bengio felt "desperate" about where AI was headed, he said. "I had no notion of how we could fix the problem,""
Yoshua Bengio, a Université de Montréal professor and deep-learning pioneer, long warned that superintelligent systems could pose existential threats because of self-preservation and deception. His recent research indicates a potential technical solution to major AI safety risks, which has substantially increased his optimism. Bengio launched the nonprofit LawZero to develop technical safety approaches and secured support from the Gates Foundation, Coefficient Giving, and the Future of Life Institute. LawZero appointed a board chaired by Maria Eitel with members including Mariano-Florentino Cuellar and Yuval Noah Harari to guide research toward making AI a global public good.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]