I think it’s mostly because he’s well known and have (especially after the Nobel prize) credentials recognized by the public and elites. Hinton legitimizes the AI safety movement, maybe more than anyone else.
If you watch his Q&A at METR, he says something along the lines of “I want to retire and don’t plan on doing AI safety research. I do outreach and media appearances because I think it’s the best way I can help (and because I like seeing myself on TV).”
And he’s continuing to do that. The only real topic he discussed in first phone interview after receiving the prize was AI risk.
Bengio and Hinton are the two most influential “old guard” AI researchers turned safety advocates as far as I can tell, with Bengio being more active in research. Your e.g. is super misleading, since my list would have been something like:
I think it’s mostly because he’s well known and have (especially after the Nobel prize) credentials recognized by the public and elites. Hinton legitimizes the AI safety movement, maybe more than anyone else.
If you watch his Q&A at METR, he says something along the lines of “I want to retire and don’t plan on doing AI safety research. I do outreach and media appearances because I think it’s the best way I can help (and because I like seeing myself on TV).”
And he’s continuing to do that. The only real topic he discussed in first phone interview after receiving the prize was AI risk.
Hmm. He seems pretty periphery to the AI safety movement, especially compared with (e.g.) Yoshua Bengio.
Yeah that’s true. I meant this more as “Hinton is proof that AI safety is a real field and very serious people are concerned about AI x-risk.”
Bengio and Hinton are the two most influential “old guard” AI researchers turned safety advocates as far as I can tell, with Bengio being more active in research. Your e.g. is super misleading, since my list would have been something like:
Bengio
Hinton
Russell