‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton says he regrets technology he helped create: 'They will wipe us out'

Geoffrey Hinton warns of AI risks as systems grow smarter. (Image credit: Fortune)

• Geoffrey Hinton warns AI risks are not being taken seriously enough
• Hinton fears AI could surpass human intelligence and cause social instability
• He urges urgent research on peaceful human-AI coexistence and global regulation

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Geoffrey Hinton, the pioneering computer scientist known as the “Godfather of AI”, said he now regrets the technology he helped create because the world is failing to take its risks seriously.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Hinton said he felt deeply saddened by the direction in which artificial intelligence is heading. "It makes me very sad that I put my life into developing this stuff and that it's now extremely dangerous and people aren't taking the dangers seriously enough."

Hinton, who played a key role in developing the neural networks, the foundation of modern AI, has become a prominent critic as the technology advances. He has repeatedly raised concerns that AI could cause mass displacement, social instability, and eventually surpass human intelligence, stressing the need for advanced systems training to protect human interests.

On BBC Newsnight, Hinton warned that the world is approaching a critical point as researchers move closer to creating machines smarter than humans. "We've never been in this situation before of being able to produce things more intelligent than ourselves," Hinton said, adding that experts believe that AI will outpace human intelligence within 20 years.

According to Hinton, the greatest mistake would be not neglecting research on human-AI coexistence. "If we create them so they don't care about us," he warned, "they will probably wipe us out."

He further stressed that there is still time to make a safe decision, as AI is underdeveloped. He expressed concern that regulating AI would be difficult as global unity declines, and compared the need for oversight to long-standing international controls on chemical and nuclear weapons.

Despite his concerns, he remained hopeful about AI’s ability to improve education, AI tutors, and the healthcare system, but stressed that urgent action is needed. "We're at a very crucial point in history when we're going to develop things more intelligent than ourselves fairly soon," he said. "We haven't done the research to figure out if we can peacefully coexist with them. It's crucial we do that research," he concluded.