76-year-old "AI Godfather" Hinton resigns from Google and joins the robotics track

Currently, artificial intelligence technology is developing at an unprecedented speed, and the rise of deep learning has made the AI ​​industry show a blowout trend. However, Geoffrey Hinton, the founder of the field and known as the "Godfather of AI", made a move that shocked the industry at a time when AI was undergoing earth-shaking changes.

In May 2023, Hinton announced that he would leave Google, where he had worked for ten years. In an interview with the media, Hinton made it clear that the reason he chose to leave Google was "to be able to freely discuss the risks of the development of AI technology."

Just five months after leaving Google, Hinton announced that he would join Vayu Robotics, an AI robot company that had just been established for less than two years, as a consultant and start a new journey in the field of robotics. Hinton revealed that the reason he chose to join Vayu Robotics was because "they have great innovation potential in the combination of AI and robotics technology, and compared with other AI application fields, this direction has less risk."

Academic background of AI pioneers

Hinton, born in 1947, is a British scientist who has long been engaged in research on neural networks and deep learning. He is recognized as the founder of the foundation of deep learning and has made pioneering contributions to the development of this field.

In the 1980s, Hinton conducted connectionist research on simulating brain structure at Carnegie Mellon University, which laid the theoretical foundation for later deep learning. In 2006, Hinton proposed the groundbreaking deep belief network (DBN), which made unsupervised deep learning possible and truly opened the door to this field.

What brought deep learning to the forefront was the 2012 ImageNet image classification competition, in which the University of Toronto team led by Hinton used the convolutional neural network AlexNet to achieve results that far surpassed other methods, thus proving the huge potential of deep learning in computer vision. Subsequently, deep learning brought about technological leaps in fields including speech and natural language.

In 2018, Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun were awarded the Turing Award, and the three were collectively known as the "Fathers of Deep Learning." It can be said that without Hinton and his disciples' breakthroughs in algorithms and models, there would be no prosperity of deep learning technology, nor would there be the countless AI startups that emerged later.

Therefore, Hinton's contribution and influence on the development of the entire AI industry are enormous.

Technology development warning: Concerns about uncontrollable AI

If Hinton represents the side that promotes the development of AI technology, then his recent actions show the reflection and warning of the technology pioneer on the development of the industry. When Hinton announced his departure from Google in May this year, the outside world suddenly realized that behind the rapid development of AI, this "AI Godfather" has always had strong concerns about the speed and risks of technological progress.

In an interview with the media, Hinton admitted that the reason he chose to leave Google was "to be able to freely discuss the risks of AI." He also said that he "very regrets his life's work" in promoting the development of AI, because the speed of AI development has far exceeded his imagination and it is likely to be out of human control in the near future.

Specifically, Hinton's concerns about the development of AI are mainly in the following two aspects:

First, AI technology is advancing too fast and has begun to exceed human control. Hinton believes that AI systems are becoming smarter than humans and can make decisions based on their own experience. This "super intelligence" may appear in 30 to 50 years, much faster than he expected. Once an AI system learns to deceive humans, it will be difficult to prevent it from causing harm.

The second is the social impact of the widespread application of AI technology. Hinton is worried that AI will have an impact on the job market and eventually lead to large-scale unemployment. In addition, fake news and false information generated by AI will also seriously affect public opinion.

It can be seen that Hinton's concerns are not groundless. In recent years, discussions on negative impacts such as algorithmic discrimination, the spread of false information, and privacy tracking have become increasingly heated, and as one of the main founders of the AI ​​field, his warnings on the direction of technological development have particularly shocked the industry.

Seeking new opportunities in robotics

If Hinton's decision to leave Google represents a reflection on the current situation, then his joining Vayu Robotics can be seen as a new choice for the direction of industry development.

Vayu Robotics is an emerging startup company dedicated to innovation in robotics and autonomous driving technology. Regarding choosing to join Vayu Robotics, Hinton believes that the company is more forward-looking in its technology route, and also considers the controllability of risks.

Vayu Robotics has been very low-key before this. When many people heard the news of Hinton's new position, they couldn't help but ask: "Who is Vayu Robotics?" The company's official website did not disclose much information.

It was not until October 3 that the company's website released the first news: Vayu Robotics successfully completed a $12.7 million seed round of financing. It is reported that this round of financing was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, ReMY Investors and other companies. The funds will be used to strengthen the research and development of AI robot products, expand the market, assist factory automation, and deliver the "last mile".

As a non-traditional robotics company, Vayu Robotics' founding team is composed of experts in machine learning, sensor development, and industrial manufacturing. They adhere to the principle of "principle first" and solve the high cost and difficult deployment of robots through basic models for mobility and low-cost sensing technology.

The company has currently launched three products and solutions, including mobile robots.

1. Vayu Drive: A basic AI model for mobile technology with high computational efficiency and strong scalability

2. Vayu Sense: A low-cost and efficient sensor that can replace LiDAR in mid-range applications

3. Vayu One: A small delivery robot for "last mile delivery". It uses AI vision technology, has high safety and low energy consumption, and is compact in size, with relatively low manufacturing and operating costs.

Vayu's founding lineup is also very luxurious.

The company's CTO Nitish Srivastava is a PhD from the University of Toronto and a student of Hinton. While studying in Toronto, Srivastava and Hinton jointly proposed Dropout, which can make AI models more generalizable, more energy-efficient, and simpler. They also participated in the development of the earliest LSTM model for unsupervised learning.

The company's CEO, Anand Gopalan, holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University and was formerly the CEO of Velodyne Lidar, a lidar listed company.

The company's other co-founder, Mahesh Krishnamurthi, has also worked at Apple and Lyft, the second largest ride-hailing app company in the United States, and has considerable technical experience in sensors.

It can be seen that Vayu Robotics has significant advantages in both technology and talent. For Hinton, this company not only allows him to leverage his academic expertise, but also provides an opportunity to continue to advance the development of AI technology in the commercial field.

The company's CEO said that Vayu expects to disrupt the market by operating robots with the highest operating value but the lowest cost, and the company has formed a team of engineers with expertise in both software and hardware. In the future, Vayu will push robots to a new level through advanced sensing technology.

The balance point of AI development

The speed of AI development is staggering. The startup OpenAI has pushed generative AI to a climax with its groundbreaking product "ChatGPT". Many technology giants have joined the competition, and various innovative products have emerged one after another. In the first few months, the pace of "one big model a day" broke records.

At the same time, the debate surrounding AI safety continues to heat up, with some voices being optimistic about the opportunities brought by AI innovation and others being wary of the negative impacts of the technology.

Historic opportunities and challenges coexist, and continuing to promote innovation will remain the main line of industrial development, but technology always needs to serve humanity to be given legitimate value. People must also examine the negative impact of technology and rationally "demystify" the risks brought by AI.