Elon Musk backs up the 'Godfather of AI' who quit Google to warn the tech could harm humanity

• Elon Musk says Geoffrey Hinton "knows what he's talking about" after he voiced concerns about AI.
• Hinton, an ex-Googler, told the NYT he worried about the impact of future versions of the tech.

Elon Musk has weighed in on comments about the dangers of advanced AI by Geoffrey Hinton, who is nicknamed the "Godfather of AI."

"Hinton knows what he's talking about," Musk tweeted in response to a Breitbart article on the subject.

Hinton, who formerly worked at Google, recently gave an interview to The New York Times where he discussed his concerns that future versions of the technology could harm humanity. He told the publication he worried the technology could lead to the dissemination of fake information, among other problems.

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Musk has been sounding the alarm about the potential dangers of AI for years. Recently, he put his name to an open letter that called for a six-month pause on advanced AI development. He has also discussed the potential risks of the technology in several interviews.

Despite this, the billionaire has been pushing ahead with his own generative AI project, which involves a large language model like the one that powers ChatGPT, Insider's Kali Hays reported.

Hinton said on Twitter after the interview that he quit Google so he could warn about the risks of AI without worrying about impacting his employers. He added that "Google has acted very responsibly."

Google launched its AI chatbot, which many saw as the company's answer to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, in March. Since then, several employees have expressed concern about the new tech. Two workers even tried to block the company from releasing the bot, citing concerns about inaccurate and dangerous responses, the New York Times reported last month.

Representatives for Elon Musk did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.