‘Godfather of AI’ says tech companies aren’t concerned with the AI endgame. They’re focused on short-term profits instead

AI·Artificial Intelligence‘Godfather of AI’ says companies aren’t concerned with the AI endgame

They’re focused on short-term fits insteadBy Sasha RogelbergBy Sasha RogelbergReporterSasha RogelbergReporterSasha Rogelberg is a reporter and former editorial fellow on the news desk at Fortune, covering retail and the intersection of and culture.SEE FULL BIO Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton said the AI endgame is not top-of-mind for reers and companies.JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP—Getty Images industry leaders are not usually thinking the long-term consequences of AI when the nology, computer scientist and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton told Fortune

They are instead concerned with immediate re outcomes and short-term fits

Hinton, known as the “godfather of AI” has long warned the consequences of AI development without intention and guardrails

Elon Musk has a moonshot vision of life with AI: The nology will take all our jobs, while a “universal high income” will mean anyone can access a theoretical abundance of goods and services. vided Musk’s lofty dream could even become a reality, there would, of course, be a found existential reckoning. “The question will really be one of meaning,” Musk said at the Vivanology conference in May 2024. “If a computer can do—and the robots can do—everything better than you… does your life have meaning?” But most industry leaders aren’t asking themselves this question the endgame of AI, according to Nobel laureate and “godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton

When it comes to AI, Big is less interested in the long-term consequences of the nology—and more concerned with quick results. “For the owners of the companies, what’s driving the re is short-term fits,” Hinton, a fessor emeritus of computer science at the University of Toronto, told Fortune

And for the developers behind the nology, Hinton said, the focus is similarly focused on the work immediately in front of them, not on the final outcome of the re itself. “Reers are interested in solving blems that have their curiosity

It’s not we start off with the same goal of, what’s the future of humanity going to be?” Hinton said. “We have these little goals of, how would you make it? Or, how should you make your computer able to recognize things in images? How would you make a computer able to generate convincing s?” he added. “That’s really what’s driving the re.” Hinton has long warned the dangers of AI without guardrails and intentional evolution, estimating a 10% to 20% chance of the nology wiping out humans after the development of superintelligence

In 2023—10 years after he sold his neural network company DNNre to Google—Hinton left his role at the giant, wanting to freely speak out the dangers of the nology and fearing the inability to “prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.” Hinton’s AI big picture For Hinton, the dangers of AI fall into two : the risk the nology itself poses to the future of humanity, and the consequences of AI being manipulated by people with bad intent. “There’s a big distinction between two different kinds of risk,” he said. “There’s the risk of bad actors misusing AI, and that’s already here

That’s already happening with things fake s and cyberattacks, and may happen very soon with viruses

And that’s very different from the risk of AI itself becoming a bad actor.” Financial institutions Ant International in Singapore, for example, have sounded the alarms the liferation of deepfakes increasing the threat of scams or fraud

Tianyi Zhang, general manager of risk management and cybersecurity at Ant International, told Fortune the company found more than 70% of new enrollment in some were potential deepfake attempts. “We’ve identified more than 150 types of deepfake attacks,” he said

Beyond advocating for more regulation, Hinton’s call to action to address the AI’s potential for misdeeds is a steep battle because each blem with the nology requires a discrete solution, he said

He envisions a venance- authentication of s and images in the future that would combat the spread of deepfakes

Just how ers added names to their works after the advent of the ing press hundreds of years ago, media sources will similarly need to find a way to add their signatures to their authentic works

But Hinton said fixes can only go so far. “That blem can bably be solved, but the solution to that blem doesn’t solve the other blems,” he said

For the risk AI itself poses, Hinton believes companies need to fundamentally change how they view their relationship to AI

When AI achieves superintelligence, he said, it will not only surpass human capabilities, but have a strong desire to survive and gain additional control

The current framework around AI—that humans can control the nology—will therefore no longer be relevant

Hinton posits AI models need to be imbued with a “maternal instinct” so it can treat the less-powerful humans with sympathy, rather than desire to control them

Invoking ideals of traditional femininity, he said the only example he can cite of a more intelligent being falling under the sway of a less intelligent one is a baby controlling a mother. “And so I think that’s a better model we could practice with superintelligent AI,” Hinton said. “They will be the mothers, and we will be the babies.”Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world

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