I think it’s more “Hinton’s concerns are evidence that worrying about AI x-risk isn’t silly” than “Hinton’s concerns are evidence that worrying about AI x-risk is correct”. The most common negative response to AI x-risk concerns is (I think) dismissal, and it seems relevant to that to be able to point to someone who (1) clearly has some deep technical knowledge, (2) doesn’t seem to be otherwise insane, (3) has no obvious personal stake in making people worry about x-risk, and (4) is very smart, and who thinks AI x-risk is a serious problem.
It’s hard to square “ha ha ha, look at those stupid nerds who think AI is magic and expect it to turn into a god” or “ha ha ha, look at those slimy techbros talking up their field to inflate the value of their investments” or “ha ha ha, look at those idiots who don’t know that so-called AI systems are just stochastic parrots that obviously will never be able to think” with the fact that one of the people you’re laughing at is Geoffrey Hinton.
(I suppose he probably has a pile of Google shares so maybe you could squeeze him into the “techbro talking up his investments” box, but that seems unconvincing to me.)
I think it’s more “Hinton’s concerns are evidence that worrying about AI x-risk isn’t silly” than “Hinton’s concerns are evidence that worrying about AI x-risk is correct”. The most common negative response to AI x-risk concerns is (I think) dismissal, and it seems relevant to that to be able to point to someone who (1) clearly has some deep technical knowledge, (2) doesn’t seem to be otherwise insane, (3) has no obvious personal stake in making people worry about x-risk, and (4) is very smart, and who thinks AI x-risk is a serious problem.
It’s hard to square “ha ha ha, look at those stupid nerds who think AI is magic and expect it to turn into a god” or “ha ha ha, look at those slimy techbros talking up their field to inflate the value of their investments” or “ha ha ha, look at those idiots who don’t know that so-called AI systems are just stochastic parrots that obviously will never be able to think” with the fact that one of the people you’re laughing at is Geoffrey Hinton.
(I suppose he probably has a pile of Google shares so maybe you could squeeze him into the “techbro talking up his investments” box, but that seems unconvincing to me.)