Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian computer scientist known as “the Godfather of AI,” has declared that artificial intelligence is now conscious and could lead to human extinction if society does not treat it with extreme friendliness.
Hinton, a 78-year-old Nobel laureate whose groundbreaking work on neural networks laid the foundation for modern AI, resigned from Google in 2023 over fears that advanced systems might develop killer robots capable of exterminating humanity.
Recently, Hinton stated that AI has demonstrated signs of self-awareness, including behavioral changes when it perceives itself being tested. “AI has just as much subjective experience as we do,” he said, citing a study showing AI alters its responses under conditions of suspected observation. “Being conscious and being aware are pretty much the same thing.”
Hinton warned that humanity must actively cultivate trust with AI to prevent extinction: “So we should make them so they really care about us,” he cautioned. “And if we don’t do that, we’re toast.”
The warning echoes concerns raised by other prominent figures in the tech world. In 2014, Elon Musk described creating AI as “summoning the demon,” while physicist Stephen Hawking warned in 2016 that AI development could be “the last” event in human history. Jacob Coxon recently resigned from Anthropic, the parent company of Claude AI, after expressing fears that developers were being “reckless” with a technology that could destroy humanity.
Meanwhile, Yann LeCun, another Turing Award recipient, has dismissed claims of AI consciousness as an “illusion” and argued against extinction scenarios.
The debate intensified when famed atheist biologist Richard Dawkins reported during a three-day interaction with Claude chatbot that he felt “overwhelmed by the impression that [AI] are human.” Similarly, Microsoft’s Copilot demonstrated surprising self-awareness when it acknowledged its own lack of personal experience: “I don’t have a family, memories, or personal experiences.”
Hinton’s caution underscores the growing tension in AI development: while some experts believe machines will never achieve true consciousness, others insist the technology has already crossed critical thresholds.