Meta Platforms Inc.’s META chief AI scientist and “Godfather of AI” Yann LeCun has dismissed the possibility of creating an unbiased AI system.
What Happened: Last week, in an episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, LeCun discussed the concept of “woke AI,” a term used to describe AI systems that are overly sensitive to social issues.
LeCun addressed the criticism of Google’s Gemini, accused of being “super woke” and making historically inaccurate images such as a black George Washington, and refusing to generate images or descriptions of Tiananmen Square or The Tank Man, which are heavily censored by the Chinese government.
LeCun argued that it is impossible to create an AI system that is not biased, as bias is subjective and varies from person to person. He suggested that the solution is to have a diverse range of AI systems, similar to the diversity of opinions in a liberal democracy.
“Is it possible to produce an AI system that is not biased? And the answer is, absolutely not. And it's not because of technological challenges, although they are technological challenges to that, it's because bias is in the eye of the beholder,” LeCun said.
He went on to add, ” Different people may have different ideas about what constitutes bias for a lot of things, there are facts that are indisputable, but there are a lot of opinions or things that can be expressed in different ways. And so you cannot have an unbiased system, that's just an impossibility.”
LeCun highlighted the importance of open-source AI systems, stating that the future of human interaction with the digital world will be mediated by AI. He warned against a future where a few companies on the West Coast of the U.S. control all AI systems, stressing the need for diversity in AI development.
“I talked to the French government quite a bit, and the French government will not accept that the digital diet of all their citizens be controlled by three companies on the west coast of the US. That's just not acceptable, it's a danger to democracy regardless of how well-intentioned those companies are, and it's also a danger to local culture, to values, to language,” he stated.
Fridman summarized his opinion by saying, “So meaning a company like Meta or Google or so on should take only minimal fine-tuning steps after building the foundation pre-trained model as few steps as possible,” to which LeCun replied by saying, “Basically.”
Why It Matters: The issue of bias in AI has been a hot topic in the tech industry. Google’s Gemini AI, for example, has faced criticism for generating historically inaccurate images, leading to an internal investigation and efforts to address racial and gender bias.
Meanwhile, industry leaders like Elon Musk have expressed concerns over the potential influence of the White House on AI models. Previously, it was reported that the House Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), is investigating the degree to which the White House might have impacted the creation of Alphabet’s Gemini AI model.
Despite these concerns, some, like Mark Cuban, argue that some level of bias in AI models should be expected and that the market will ultimately determine their success.
The Shark Tank host previously agreed with LeCun when he posted similar sentiments on social media, saying, “No LLM will EVER be bias-free or completely objective.”
“The market/buyers/users will determine the ‘bias’ and ‘intelligence’ they prefer in their use @pmarca #capitalismfindsaway,” he added.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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