The “Godfather of AI” fears that superintelligent AI will challenge human dominance — but he has a suggestion that could reframe AI assistants as AI mothers.
In a keynote speech at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Geoffrey Hinton, 78, predicted a future where AI could assert control over humans as easily as an adult interacting with a 3-year-old child, getting them to complete a task with the promise of candy. AI is going to be “much smarter than us,” Hinton said.
Hinton is known as the “Godfather of AI” due to his pioneering studies that laid the groundwork for current AI systems, like ChatGPT and other chatbots. Hinton began his work in the late 1970s and eventually won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024 for his work. He is currently a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Toronto.
In the address, Hinton suggested training AI to have “maternal instincts” so that it is programmed to care deeply about people. That way, advanced AI systems will be trained with the same instincts as a mother looking out for the survival of her children.
Geoffrey Hinton. Photo by PONTUS LUNDAHL/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images
“That’s the only good outcome,” Hinton said, per CNN Business. “If it’s not going to parent me, it’s going to replace me.”
Hinton said that he wasn’t aware of how to technically accomplish the task of creating AI with maternal instincts, but stressed that it was vital for AI researchers and developers to work towards it. He emphasized that “the only model” of a more intelligent being controlled by a less intelligent being is “a mother being controlled by her baby.”
Hinton also shortened his predicted timeline for advanced general intelligence (AGI), or AI that surpasses human intelligence. Instead of forecasting that it could take 30 to 50 years before AGI emerges, Hinton said that a more “reasonable bet” was five to 20 years.
Hinton has weighed in on AI’s impact on humanity before, ranging from extinction to mass joblessness. For example, in December, Hinton predicted that there was at least a 10% chance that AI would wipe out humanity and lead to human extinction within the next 30 years.
Meanwhile, in a podcast appearance in June, Hinton predicted that AI would replace everyone in white-collar jobs, noting that occupations like paralegals and call center representatives were most at risk. He said that it would be “a long time” before AI takes over physical tasks and blue-collar jobs, making those occupations least at risk for the time being.
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