Jeffrey Hinton, an honorary professor at the University of Toronto and the 2024 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, has warned that the safe development of artificial intelligence (AI) could become more challenging with the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. In a recent interview with Yomiuri Shimbun, Hinton emphasized the need for increased investment in safety measures by AI development companies, highlighting that the evolution of AI is spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories, thereby threatening democracy. He expressed concerns that such efforts might regress under Trump’s administration.
Trump has expressed intentions to abolish the executive order on AI safety introduced by the Joe Biden administration. This current order mandates development companies to share vital information with the government. Hinton explained that Trump might allow AI companies to freely establish their rules without such obligations. He warns that when profit-driven companies compete, safety often takes a back seat, likening this to an arms race. Hinton advocates for legislative measures to mandate AI development companies to invest a third of their computing capacity in safety research, noting that currently only about 1% is used for this purpose, calling for a thirtyfold increase.
He suggested that there is more than a 50% chance that AI with intelligence surpassing humans could emerge within the next 20 years and possibly as early as within five years. He emphasized the urgent need to seriously consider the possibility of AI dominating humanity.
While acknowledging the benefits of AI’s evolution, such as reducing medical misdiagnoses and advancing drug development, Hinton also predicted that AI could lead to more job losses than creation. He speculated that workers may lose their jobs and that income inequality could widen.
Regarding China’s AI development, he pointed out that China is investing more funds than the U.S. and could surpass the U.S. within the next decade.
Jeffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “Godfather of AI,” is renowned for his work in “machine learning,” the foundational technology of generative AI. Last year, he resigned from Google, where he had worked for about a decade, to highlight the risks associated with AI.