Geoffrey Hinton warns AI could destroy humanity

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton has warned that AI could one day wipe out humanity if its growth is unchecked.

Speaking at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, the former Google executive estimated a 10 to 20 percent chance of such an outcome and criticised the approach taken by technology leaders.

He argued that efforts to keep humans ‘dominant’ over AI will fail once systems become more intelligent than their creators. According to Hinton, powerful AI will inevitably develop goals such as survival and control, making it increasingly difficult for people to restrain its influence.

In an interview with CNN, Hinton compared the potential future to a parent-child relationship, noting that AI systems may manipulate humans just as easily as an adult can bribe a child.

He suggested giving AI ‘maternal instincts’ to prevent disaster so that the technology genuinely cares about human well-being.

Hinton, often called the ‘Godfather of AI’ for his pioneering work in neural networks, cautioned that society risks creating beings that will ultimately outsmart and overpower us without embedding such safeguards.

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