Artificial Intelligence needs responsible approach: Google Co-founder

The boom in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has to be dealt with utmost care as such powerful tools also bring with them new questions and responsibilities, Alphabet's President and Google's Co-founder Sergey Brin has warned.

In an annual Founders' letter, Brin who founded Google in 1998 with Larry Page, said: "The new spring in AI is the most significant development in computing in my lifetime.

"Every month, there are stunning new applications and transformative new techniques. But such powerful tools also bring with them new questions and responsibilities.

"How will they affect employment across different sectors?" How can we understand what they are doing under the hood? What about measures of fairness? How might they manipulate people? Are they safe?"

According to a report in CNET late Saturday, Brin, 44, started his letter by quoting the opening lines of Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" -- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

He said AI is the most significant development in computing and Google is using it to analyse images in Google Photos; translates over 100 languages in Google translate; powers the navigation systems in Waymo's self-driving cars; and even helps diagnose disease and discover new planetary systems.

"In this sense, we are truly in a technology renaissance, an exciting time where we can see applications across nearly every segment of modern society," Brin wrote.

"While I am optimistic about the potential to bring technology to bear on the greatest problems in the world, we are on a path that we must tread with deep responsibility, care, and humility," he added.

Riding on online advertisement growth, Google's parent company Alphabet posted a net income of $9.4 billion in the first quarter this year -- a 73 per cent jump from $5.4 billion in the same period last year.

Advertising revenue soared 24 per cent to $26.6 billion while the total revenue was $31.1 billion.

"Our ongoing strong revenue growth reflects our momentum globally, up 26 per cent versus the first quarter of 2017 and 23 per cent on a constant currency basis to $31.1 billion," Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, said.

--IANS

na/ksk