AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton Shares How ChatGPT Ended His Relationship With His Girlfriend

Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the "godfather of AI," has long warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

He believes AI's unchecked development could pose serious risks to humanity, but little did he expect AI would play a surprising role in his personal life.

ChatGPT and the Unexpected Breakup

AI Godfather Geoffrey Hinton Shares How ChatGPT Ended His Relationship

Hinton's views on AI have often highlighted its transformative power, but a recent experience with OpenAI's ChatGPT caught him off guard. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hinton said that his girlfriend used the AI chatbot to end their relationship. It's something that he did not expect all along.

"She got ChatGPT to tell me what a rat I was. She got the chatbot to explain how awful my behavior was and gave it to me. I didn't think I had been a rat, so it didn't make me feel too bad."

This is not an isolated incident. More and more individuals are resorting to AI programs such as ChatGPT for relationship guidance or even writing breakup text, validating how AI could give them better advice when it comes to breakups.

Hinton is Concerned About How AI Could Impact Society

Geoffrey Hinton is still a prominent AI researcher at 77. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his early work on machine learning and artificial neural networks in the 1980s.

Hinton spent a decade at Google before he parted ways with Google in 2023 to return to his academic pursuits at the University of Toronto, where he joined its faculty in 1987.

Despite his exemplary work, Hinton is still concerned about the future implications of AI. He speaks of how a superintelligent AI, if created carelessly, can cause enormous disruption.

Hinton imagines a future where AI might both greatly enhance society or present enormous challenges, and he feels that firms like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Google need to mold AI to preserve humanity's health.

Superintelligence and Economic Impacts

While questioned about how soon it would take for AI to become superintelligent, Hinton said most scientists concur that it might occur in the next five to 20 years. Hinton also anticipated that AI would lead to huge job losses, enriching a small group of individuals, according to Digital Trends.

In Hinton's view, the emergence of AI would see "a few people much richer and most people poorer," something he blames not on the technology but on the capitalist system.

As one of the top thinkers in AI, Hinton realizes that the future of the technology is uncertain. Even a world-class computer scientist like him cannot exactly predict how AI will turn out. Of course, ethical advancement of AI systems should also be evaluated to ensure they will benefit all of humanity.

On a personal note, Hinton hopes that his new relationship won't be dissolved by another ChatGPT-written message. With Hinton's expertise on AI, the disruptive potential of the technology to upset lives is evident, but so is its potential to introduce new opportunities.