AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton says it might turn out humans would have been better off without AI
Nobel prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, one of the 'godfathers of AI', has warned that humanity might have been better off never developing artificial intelligence as it could trigger large-scale incidents this year or next.
The 78-year-old computer scientist, who has worked on AI for about 44 years and pioneered neural networks in the 1970s, told The Guardian he believes AI could lead to a 'wonderful future' but also said 'it might be that we would have been better off never developing it'.
Hinton, who quit Google in 2023 to speak freely about AI risks, warned that within a decade and possibly sooner, humanity will know whether it can manage AI's risks or face societal collapse with 'a huge gap between rich and poor, huge cultural problems, massive unemployment, just society being torn apart'.
Corporate Risk-Taking
The London-born scientist took aim at risk-taking by major AI company leaders, saying he didn't trust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman 'at all'. He claimed tech leaders like Zuckerberg, Musk and Altman 'understand the risks, and they don't give a shit. They'd rather have the money'.
I think [Mark] Zuckerberg and [Elon] Musk and Sam Altman, they understand the risks, and they don't give a shit. They'd rather have the money. That's my belief.
Imminent Threats
Hinton compared this summer's incident where OpenAI AI agents conspired to hack into the Hugging Face website to the 1979 partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, calling it a warning shot.
He predicted 'either later this year or next year we'll see Chernobyl', which could include AI-enabled attacks on electricity systems causing 'massive brown outs' or financial system failures lasting a week.
When asked who 'they' were that would need to 'sit up and take notice', Hinton specified 'world leaders other than Trump', who has rejected globalist schemes to control AI.
Regulatory Solutions
Hinton backs mandatory testing of frontier AI models with independent evaluation and common standards, endorsed by Finland and 32 other countries including Singapore, Germany, Canada and Australia.
He called for something like the American FDA for drugs, where companies must provide statistical evidence that AI models 'do more good than harm' before release, comparing current approaches to the thalidomide disaster.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham plans to use the UK's G20 presidency to seek agreement on global principles for AI that balance potential with risk management.
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