Geoffrey Hinton will be giving an academic talk on artificial intelligence at Convocation Hall on Oct. 27. (Photo: Polina Teif)

After with his warnings about , will be engaging directly with researchers and scholars at a University of Toronto event. 

A U of T Emeritus in the ������Ƶ of Computer Science who is often referred to as “the godfather of AI,” Hinton will tackle the question during an academic talk at Convocation Hall on Oct. 27. (Tickets to the in-person event are sold out, but a recording will be shared publicly at a later date). 

His lecture will be followed by a Q&A session co-ordinated by , a professor in the ������Ƶ of Computer Science in the Faculty of Arts & Science who is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and an associate director at U of T’s . 

The session will give Hinton an opportunity to directly engage with researchers and scholars from across the university regarding the revolutionary technology he helped create.  

“AI is re-shaping the way we live, work and interact with each other,” says McIlraith. “Given the current public discourse about AI, it’s particularly important that scholars across disciplines learn from each other and engage in an informed exchange of views regarding the societal implications of this transformative technology.” 

U of T provides an ideal forum for such scholarly discourse, she adds, because of U of T’s , the “breadth and depth” of expertise at the university and the city of Toronto’s position as of AI research and development. 

"The conversation around AI is no longer housed in the computer science lab or within the offices of Big Tech. It needs to be multidisciplinary to advance our collective understanding of the opportunities and the potential risks so we can work to avoid the risks while benefiting from all that AI has to offer.”  

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the department of computer science in the Faculty of Arts & Science are co-hosting Hinton’s talk in collaboration with the and the Cosmic Future Initiative at the Faculty of Arts & Science. 

— Original story by Adina Bresge for

University Professor Geoffrey Hinton speaks with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley about advanced artificial intelligence. (Image courtesy of 60 Minutes)

, often dubbed the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” explained the potential benefits — and risks — of the technology he helped bring into existence on CBS News’s .

A Emeritus in U of T’s ������Ƶ of Computer Science, Hinton told correspondent Scott Pelley about his decision earlier this year to .

The cognitive psychologist and computer scientist, whose research contributions set the stage for the current acceleration of AI development, says he has no regrets because of the technology’s enormous potential benefits. But he warns that humanity is at a “turning point” in determining AI’s trajectory — and that the decisions we make today could have far-reaching consequences for the future.

“I think my main message is there's enormous uncertainty about what's (going to) happen next,” Hinton told the newsmagazine program. “These things do understand. And because they understand, we need to think hard about what's going to happen next. And we just don't know.”

Some of the top innovators and developments in artificial intelligence have emerged from Canada in recent years, writes Global News, citing the contributions of U of T ������Ƶ of Computer Science faculty and alumni.

The feature spotlights the work of University of Toronto luminary alongside other ‘godfathers of deep learning,’ Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun.

Tracing the genesis of modern advancements in AI, Global News highlights the seminal roles Hinton’s former students and alumni have played in the current AI boom, including Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever, who is chief science officer and co-founder of OpenAI.

“I think over the next many years when people write books about the history of neural networks, which will be the history of AI, there will be huge sections dedicated to the people in Canada and what they were doing,” alumnus Nick Frosst told Global News.

Frosst is the co-founder of Toronto-based natural language processing startup Cohere, alongside fellow alumnus Aidan Gomez and Ivan Zhang, a former U of T computer science student.

Frosst points out heading to Silicon Valley isn’t necessarily the only option for those aspiring to a career in tech.

“I think that dream is less enticing to students as the years go on,” he said. “In part, it’s because Canada is getting better. There’s more opportunity here, there’s more companies, wages are going up — it’s a better place to be a developer,” Frosst told the outlet.

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