Pontus Lundahl/TT/via Reuters
- The ‘Godfather of AI‘ says the US’ lead over China in the AI race is narrower than people think.
- Hinton said that attacks on “research universities” will further erode that lead.
- “You are eating the seed corn,” Hinton said of such attacks.
The US is at risk of losing its AI edge to China, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton warned.
Appearing on a recent episode of Jon Stewart’s “The Weekly Show With Jon Stewart,” Hinton said the US is currently ahead of China in the AI race, but that the lead won’t last.
“Suppose you want to do one thing that would really kneecap a country that would really mean that in 20 years’ time, that country is going to be behind instead of ahead,” Hinton told Stewart when pressed on why he thinks the US will lose its AI advantage. “The one thing you should do is mess with the funding of basic science, attack the research universities, remove grants for basic science in the long run. That’s a complete disaster.”
Hinton, the so-called “Godfather of AI,” said the US is not ahead of China “by nearly as much as it thought” and that the downstream effects of weakening support for top universities are considerable.
“If you look at, for example, this deep learning, the AI revolution we’ve got now that came from many years of sustained funding for basic research, not huge amounts of money,” he said. “All of the funding for the basic research for that led to deep learning probably cost less than one B-1 bomber. Wow. But it was sustained funding of basic research. If you mess with that, you are eating the seed corn.”
Hinton, who previously worked at Google, did not elaborate on what cuts he was referencing. Trump and top administration officials have repeatedly pressured top universities over what the Education Department has deemed their insufficient handling of “antisemitic harassment.” The administration has also taken issue over other areas, including admissions and diversity policies.
Administration officials have threatened to cut federal research funding to Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, UCLA, and many other universities unless they comply with their requested changes. Trump recently said that the administration was “close” to reaching a settlement with Harvard.
Last week, MIT President Sally Kornbluth rejected an Education Department offer for preferential access to federal funds that would have required the university to pledge its policies on a wide range of topics, including admissions, handling of protests, and limits on employees’ political speech, which would align with the Trump administration’s requests.
Earlier in the interview, Hinton said that if there was going to be international leadership on the safe development of AI, it would have to come from Europe and China.
“It’s not going to come from the US for another three and a half years,” he said, likely referencing when Trump’s term will end.
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