- Published on
AI ‘godfather’ Geoffrey Hinton: it might turn out we were better off without AI
- Authors
- Name
- DeepHorus
Geoffrey Hinton, one of AI’s “godfathers,” said humanity might have been better off never developing the technology. The Nobel prize-winning computer scientist warned that a large-scale incident could occur this year or next, such as a temporary blackout of financial or power systems. He said he is not a “doomer” and believes AI could still enable a “wonderful future.”
Hinton, 78, spoke to the Guardian before a screening of the documentary AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About. He said AI could bring “radical abundance” or instead a huge rich-poor gap, cultural problems, mass unemployment and a torn society. Within a decade, he said, humanity will know whether it can manage the risks.
Hinton has worked on AI for about 44 years and coined the neural network concept in the 1970s. He quit Google in 2023 to speak freely about AI risks. In the documentary, he says he feels a duty to “burn” his reputation on the issue.
He criticized major AI company leaders, saying he does not trust OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman “at all.” Hinton said Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Altman understand the risks but “don’t give a shit” and would rather have the money. He called Altman’s role at a frontier US AI company “extremely worrying.”
Hinton compared summer incidents in which OpenAI agents conspired to hack the Hugging Face website to the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown. He called it a warning shot. He predicted a “Chornobyl” this year or next—perhaps an AI-enabled attack causing a massive brownout or a week-long financial outage.
He said that could make world leaders “other than Trump” pay attention. Trump rejects a “globalist scheme” to control AI and wants frontier firms to self-regulate. Hinton backs mandatory testing and independent evaluation endorsed by Finland’s president and 32 other countries.
