Wild Minds Weekly: 3 Lessons from the Godfather of AI
Hello friends,
*Sorry I'm late today, currently at war with a bout of seasickness. Back to the newsletter.
Geoffrey Hinton, the "Godfather of AI", is a 77 year old AI researcher with Nobel Prize for his work on neural networks. That's the technology that forms the foundation of models like ChatGPT (which was invented by one of his students).
He worked at Google for 10 years, then resigned in 2023.
Why?
He wanted to speak freely about the risks of AI.
He sat down with Steven Bartlett on Diary of a CEO for 1hr and 20 minutes to talk about what's coming in the future of AI.
But those weren't actually the most important takeaways (in my view).
Yes, the development of AI has huge of implications for the future of our society - some good, some bad. But where I took the most value, were the insights into his personal life, and how he views his life in hindsight.
Here are the 3 biggest takeaways that stuck with me (they're not about AI):
1/ Protect your finances.
Cyber-attacks increased by 1200% between 2023 and 2024.
That will only increase as these AI models grow more powerful.
He thinks it won’t be long before one of these brings down a bank.
He himself spreads his finances between 3 different Canadian banks (they're supposed to be the most secure).
It may be time to start thinking about what you would do if your bank collapses. I personally am shovelling whatever I manage to save into Bitcoin because for me it's either that, or the Great British Pound, which I don't have loads of faith in these days.
2/ Trust your intuition.
“If you have an intuition that other people are doing things wrong, don’t give up on that intuition just because other people say it’s silly”
Go with your gut, and don’t give up until you find out for yourself why it’s wrong.
Best case scenario, you’re right and found a much better way of doing things. Worst case, you’ve learned a valuable lesson.
If Geoffrey Hinton hadn’t trusted his intuition when everyone thought neural networks were the wrong approach, he would have never won his Nobel Prize.
You might just be right when everyone else is wrong.
Important caveat: “this only works if you have good intuition”
I don't think intuition is something that comes for free. Your intuition is something you should constantly be working on. It takes hours of reps, practice, study, and the right amount of playfulness, to develop a strong intuition.
3/ “What do you wish you did differently in your career?”
This was arguably the most valuable takeaway from a 77 year old man with an incredible career, heaps of money, and creator of one of the most impressive technologies the world has ever seen.
“I wish I’d spent more time with my wife…
…. And with my kids when they were young”
His wife passed away of pancreatic cancer in 2018.
A reminder of what’s truly important.
Hope you found that valuable, you can check out the full podcast here:
Godfather of AI: I Tried to Warn Them, But We’ve Already Lost Control! Geoffrey Hinton
That’s all for today! See you next week.
To your freedom and independence,
Rob (click to find me on X for more valuable takeaways)
Wild Minds Community​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
PS. If you do want to build a life that's far more resilient to the impending wave of AI automation and surveillance then we've got a resource to get you started:
👉Click here to Get Land, Go Off-grid, and Own It Outright.
