AI pioneer Jeffrey Hinton has warned that the US is at risk of losing its AI advantage to China.
Appearing on a recent episode of Jon Stewart’s The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, Hinton said that while the U.S. currently has a lead over China in the AI race, that lead won’t last long.
When asked why he thought the United States would lose its AI advantage, Hinton told Stewart, “Let’s say you want to do one thing that really brings a country to its knees, and in 20 years it’s going to mean that country is going backwards instead of forwards.” “One of the things you should do is destroy funding for basic science, attack research universities, and eliminate funding for basic science in the long run. That would be a complete disaster.”
Hinton, the so-called “godfather of AI,” said the U.S. is not ahead of China “as much as I thought” and that weakening support for top universities would have a large downstream impact.
“If you look at this deep learning, for example, the AI revolution we have now is not a result of huge amounts of money, but years of continued funding of basic research,” he said. “All the funding for basic research that leads to deep learning is probably cheaper than one B-1 bomber. That’s amazing. But it was continuous funding for basic research. If you mess with that, you’re eating corn seed.”
hinton I used to work at Google, He did not elaborate on which cuts he was referring to. President Trump and senior administration officials have repeatedly pressed top universities over what the Education Department deems inadequate responses to “anti-Semitic harassment.” The administration has also raised issues in other areas, including admissions and diversity policies.
Government officials are threatening to cut federal research funding if Harvard University, MIT, Princeton University, Columbia University, UCLA, and many other universities do not comply with requested changes. President Trump recently said his administration was “closer” to reaching a settlement with Harvard University.
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Last week, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth rejected a Department of Education proposal for preferential access to federal funds. The proposal would have required universities to commit to policies on a wide range of topics, including admissions, response to protests and limits on political speech by employees, in line with Trump administration demands.
Hinton said at the beginning of the interview that if there was to be international leadership on the safe development of AI, it would have to come from Europe and China.
“We won’t receive aid from the United States for another three and a half years,” he said, likely referring to the end of President Trump’s term.
