Nobel Prize-winning AI scientist Professor Geoffrey Hinton has warned that humans risk being wiped out unless they make robots care about people, claiming artificial intelligence already shows signs of consciousness
The ‘godfather of artificial intelligence’ has issued a chilling warning that humanity must forge alliances with robots or face potential extinction, declaring the technology has achieved “consciousness”. Professor Geoffrey Hinton, a British-Canadian computer scientist renowned for his groundbreaking research on artificial neural networks, delivered the sobering message at a festival in Tenerife, confessing his fears for his own children’s future.
The 78-year-old Nobel Prize laureate notably publicly down from Google in 2023 over growing anxieties that the technology could give rise to ‘killer robots’.
Professor Hinton urged people to ensure they remain on friendly terms with AI, as it was now displaying indicators of “consciousness”.
The boffin suggested the technology possesses “as much subjective experience” as people do, pointing to a recent paper demonstrating it alters its actions when it suspects it’s under examination”.
He told the Telegraph: “Being conscious and being aware are pretty much the same thing. We’ve tended to say being intelligent gives you rights and these things that we’ve made may be more intelligent than us, but we’re going to give them fewer rights than us. So we should make them so they really care about us. And if we don’t do that, we’re toast.”
Despite these warnings, prominent AI industry leaders, including OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who previously advocated for stricter oversight of the emerging technology, are now pushing back against what they call “overregulation”.
When questioned about his concerns regarding AI and what lies ahead, Professor Hinton responded: “Yes, because I have children.”
During a Senate hearing in May last year, Altman contended that regulations similar to those implemented in the EU would prove “disastrous”. Altman said: “We need the space to innovate and to move quickly. ‘.
Professor Hinton warned this approach could potentially lead to humanity’s complete destruction. Speaking last year, he warned: “If we can’t figure out a solution to how we can still be around when they’re much smarter than us and much more powerful than us, we’ll be toast. We need a counter–pressure to the tech bros who are saying there should be no regulations on AI.”
In comes after researcher Jacob Coxon stepping down from Anthropic last month. Coxon accused the company of developing uncontrollable systems that could “kill us all”.
He posted on X: “The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt.”