Meta Build with AI Summit: AI godfather Yann LeCun says future AI will be built collaboratively, nothing to fear

Yann LeCun, widely regarded as one of the ‘godfathers of AI,’ believes that in the future, large AI systems will not be created by a single entity or solely developed in countries like the US. Instead, it will be a collaborative effort, where “main ones will be trained in a distributed fashion all across the world,” with most of the data remaining local. Speaking at the Meta Build with AI Summit in Bengaluru on 23 October, LeCun offered a glimpse of the future. A future filled with open-source AI models, where humans will interact with AI assistants at the tap of a button on their smart devices. He envisions data centres worldwide agreeing to what he calls a “consensus model,” with AI models “trained on the entire data from all over the world without actually transmitting the data.”

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Yann LeCun’s Vision of the Future Involves AI Bots in Everyone’s Smart Devices

“All of us will be walking around with smart glasses,” LeCun said, hinting at what a future with open-source AI models like Llama could look like. At the same time, he says everyone will be able to communicate with AI assistants, but there is no need to fear, despite the possibility of these AI assistants becoming smarter than humans.

“Those AI assistants might eventually be smarter than us. But we shouldn’t feel threatened by that. We should feel empowered. It’s kind of like everybody walking around with a staff of smart people working for them,” LeCun added.

Using the example of how beneficial it is to work and live with humans who are smarter than us, LeCun believes living with smarter bots could also be advantageous.

Later, LeCun made a bold statement—one that many experts disagree with. “So, AI is not going to dominate us or take over, but it’s going to amplify human intelligence,” LeCun claims. 

“Everybody is going to be smarter for it. And it’s not just people like us in the tech community or academia. It’s going to be everyone. Everyone in India, including those in rural areas, will be able to ask questions to their AI assistants in their own language, whether about health issues or anything else. A very different future will become possible,” he added.

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AI Could Have The Same Impact As The Printing Press

LeCun ended his talk at the Meta Build with AI Summit in Bengaluru with an intriguing anecdote about the printing press. He drew an analogy to how AI could have the same effect as the printing press did in the 14th century, which motivated people to read and eventually led to significant events like the French and American Revolutions, bringing down the feudal system.

“Maybe AI will have the same effect. We could see progress in science, in medicine, in Nobel Prize-winning work. I foresee a bright future with that. Many of you will be here to witness it because you’re younger than me. But I’m ready to help you build it,” LeCun concluded.

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