Yoshua Bengio, the artificial
intelligence pioneer, says the centralization of wealth, power and capability
in Big Tech is "dangerous for democracy" and that the companies
should be broken up.
Why
it matters: Bengio is a
professor at the University of Montreal and a member of the three-man "Canadian Mafia" that
pioneered machine learning, the leading method used in AI. His remarks are
notable because of his influence in the AI community and because he or his peers
all either directly lead or consult for Big Tech's AI programs. Says Bengio:
"Concentration of wealth leads to concentration of power. That's one
reason why monopoly is dangerous. It's dangerous for democracy."
The
AI pioneers: Bengio consults
for IBM and his colleagues Geoffrey Hinton consults for Google and Yann LeCun
for Facebook. Ruslan Salakhutdinov, a protege of Hinton's, runs Apple's AI
research effort.
Benigo
said the concentration of resources, talent and knowledge among giant tech
companies is only increasing and governments must act. "We need to create
a more level playing field for people and companies," Bengio told Axios at
an AI conference in Toronto last week.
In
recent years, Apple, Facebook,
Google and Microsoft have amassed a towering lead in AI research. But now, they
are subject to growing scrutiny because of their outsized influence on society,
politics and the economy. I asked Bengio if the companies should be broken
up. He harrumphed and responded that anti-trust laws should be
enforced. "Governments have become so meek in front of companies," he
said.
"AI
is a technology that naturally
lends itself to a winner take all," Bengio said. "The country and
company that dominates the technology will gain more power with time. More data
and a larger customer base gives you an advantage that is hard to dislodge.
Scientists want to go to the best places. The company with the best research
labs will attract the best talent. It becomes a concentration of wealth and
power."
When
some of the young people gathered around him looked a bit dejected, Bengio
responded, "Don't despair — fight."
https://www.axios.com/artificial-intelligence-pioneer-calls-for-the-breakup-of-big-tech-2487483705.html
