STOCKHOLM, Dec 7, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Physics Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton
and chemistry laureate Demis Hassabis on Saturday insisted on a need for
strong regulation of artificial intelligence, which played a key role in
their awards.

"AI is a very important technology to regulate but I think it's very
important that we get the regulations right and I think that's the hard thing
at the moment is it's such a fast moving technology," Hassabis told a news
conference in Stockholm.

Hassabis, who jointly won with Americans David Baker and John Jumper for
revealing the secrets of proteins through AI, said such evolutionary speed
posed a giant challenge.

But the underlying issue, he said, is "about what do we want to use these
systems for, how do we want to deploy them and making sure that all of
humanity benefits from what these systems can do."

British-Canadian Hinton, considered the "Godfather of AI," conceded that "I
wish I'd thought about safety earlier," in allusion to his fears about the
potential for AI to ramp up the arms race.

Hinton, who made headlines when he quit Google last year and warned of the
dangers machines could one day outsmart people, was awarded his Nobel along
with American John Hopfield for work on artificial neural networks.

"Governments are unwilling to regulate themselves when it comes to lethal
autonomous weapons and there is an arms race going on between all the major
arms suppliers like the United States, China, Russia, Britain, Israel.

Hassabis said he was recommending governments come up with "fast and nimble
regulations."

He said he had been advising governments and civil society to build on
regulations in domains such as healthcare and transport "and see how the
technology develops and then quickly adapt to the way that's going."

He told AFP he had had discussions with Elon Musk about the "existential
threat" posed by inappropriate use of AI and indicated the tech billionaire
was concerned at the potential for AI to wrest control from humans.

He added that he was confident Musk would "communicate that to Trump and his
administration" when Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

But he warned that he was not sure if all of Trump's team would necessarily
be sufficiently attuned to the risks entailed, adding that he believed Musk
himself is not a "particularly moral" person.