Professor Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist often called the 'godfather of artificial intelligence', has warned that humanity risks being wiped out unless people make robots care about them, claiming AI already shows signs of consciousness.
Hinton, a British-Canadian researcher renowned for his work on artificial neural networks, delivered the warning at a festival in Tenerife, confessing fears for his own children's future. The 78-year-old laureate publicly stepped down from Google in 2023 over concerns that the technology could give rise to 'killer robots'.
AI Shows 'Consciousness' and 'Subjective Experience'
Professor Hinton urged people to remain on friendly terms with AI, as it was now displaying indicators of "consciousness". He 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."
Pushback Against Overregulation
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."
Warning of Potential Destruction
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."
This comes after researcher Jacob Coxon stepped 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."
