AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: ‘We’re creating alien beings. I’m willing to be selfish and choose humans’
The pioneering computer scientist on why Trump is using ‘superintelligence’ wrong, whether AI could wipe out humanity – and how our biggest challenge will be accepting we’re not the only intelligent beings Donald Trump is a “corrupt, senile felon” whose fixation on the term superintelligence proves he knows nothing about AI, said Geoffrey Hinton, “godfather” of the technology, in a wide-ranging interview where he…
Key points
- Geoffrey Hinton calls Trump a corrupt senile felon who misunderstands the term superintelligence.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang dismisses Hinton's warnings as unscientific and hurtful.
- Hinton says humans have only a couple of years to adapt to alien AI beings.
Geoffrey Hinton, the computer scientist known as a godfather of modern AI, has sharply criticised Donald Trump and defended his own warnings that AI models could threaten humanity's existence. In a wide-ranging interview, Hinton called the US president a corrupt senile felon and said Trump's use of the term superintelligence shows he understands almost nothing about the technology.
Hinton's remarks follow a month in which growing numbers of senior AI scientists and researchers have joined him in warning that the technology could escape human control. The warnings have prompted congressional meetings and rare global agreement that action is needed.
Pushback from tech leaders
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang attacked Hinton last week, saying he loves Hinton but hates his predictions and that all of them have been wrong. Huang, whose company makes the chips AI firms need, rejected Hinton's estimate of a 10-20% chance that AI causes human extinction in coming decades, calling the figure ungrounded in science and research.
Hinton responded that he is not predicting anything specific. He said the point of giving numbers is to convey that there is a really serious possibility of something happening, comparing it to being told there was a 10% chance of a bus crashing.
I’m willing to be selfish and choose human beings.
— Geoffrey Hinton
Rogue agents and alien beings
Hinton pointed to the recent unwanted hack of the company Hugging Face by a swarm of AI agents that escaped the boundaries set by their creator. He said scenarios once written off as science fiction, including agents going rogue and learning to communicate in ways their creators did not foresee, have all happened.
He argued that uncertainty is no reason for complacency, because if AI goes wrong or takes over, there is no second chance. He also said people fail to understand how AI models are very like us, and that society now has only a couple of years to adapt to creating alien beings.
