NEW YORK — Geoffrey Hinton warned at the Sana AI Summit in New York in late May or early June 2026 that artificial intelligence will become “much more intelligent than us” and could pose existential risks to humanity. The British-Canadian computer scientist and theoretical psychologist, known as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ said AI will surpass the intelligence of the world’s best mathematicians within a decade and could reach or exceed Albert Einstein’s level within 20 years.
Hinton, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Hopfield for foundational AI work, stated there is a 10% to 20% chance that AI causes human extinction within 30 years. He compared the competitive development of AI by companies to evolutionary processes, warning it could produce beings that are not benevolent toward humans. “Intelligence is not the only important trait in a being, and that AI developers should ensure AI systems care about humans,” Hinton said.
Hinton argued that negative societal outcomes like AI-driven unemployment and soaring corporate profits stem from the capitalist system, not from AI technology itself. He suggested that language models can become smarter without large new data inputs by identifying and resolving internal inconsistencies. He noted that Demis Hassabis shares this view. Hinton cited an example of an AI system proving a Paul Erdős mathematical theorem using an unexpected branch of mathematics as evidence of AI’s advancing reasoning capabilities.
In August 2025, Hinton proposed that AI should be engineered with “maternal instincts” to care for and protect humans. At the 2026 summit, he also made a lighthearted remark about his Nobel win, joking that if it were a dream, he would wake up and “that nightmare about Trump being president wouldn’t be true.” Hinton left Google in 2023, stating he regretted his life’s work.