Geoffrey Hinton

Nobel-winning pioneer of neural networks who left Google in 2023 to warn that digital intelligence may surpass and escape human control, putting the chance of AI-caused extinction within decades at 10 to 20 per cent.

Roles

1987 – presentProfessor, University of TorontoNow University Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science.Source →
1998 – 2001Founding Director, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College LondonSource →
2013 – May 2023Vice President and Engineering Fellow, GoogleWorked half-time at Google Brain; left so he could speak freely about AI risk.Source →
2017 – presentCo-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector InstituteSource →

On the record

22 Apr 2026 · Speech · Digital World Conference, Geneva (via AFP)
We don't know whether we can co-exist with super intelligent AI … But we are constructing it … we should be careful to construct in a way where we still continue to exist
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector Institute at the time
Spoke by video link; also said only "maybe 1%" of AI work goes into making it safer.
He helped build AI. Now he is sounding the alarm about what comes next for everyone →
10 Jan 2025 · Interview · WBUR On Point
Superintelligence is coming, and nobody knows how we can control that.
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector Institute at the time
Radio interview first broadcast 10 January 2025 and rebroadcast 29 December 2025; he restates his 10–20% extinction estimate.
The ‘Godfather of AI’ says we can’t afford to get it wrong →
10 Dec 2024 · Speech · Nobel Prize banquet, Stockholm
There is also a longer term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that are more intelligent than ourselves. We have no idea whether we can stay in control.
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector Institute at the time
Banquet speech after receiving the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics; the official text is at nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2024/hinton/speech/.
Geoffrey Hinton decries tech companies chasing “short-term profits” in Nobel Prize acceptance speech →
30 May 2023 · Statement · Center for AI Safety
Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector Institute at the time
Listed as a signatory as Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, University of Toronto.
Statement on AI Risk →
2 May 2023 · Interview · MIT Technology Review
These things are totally different from us. Sometimes I think it's as if aliens had landed and people haven't realized because they speak very good English.
Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Vector Institute at the time
Interview given the day after he announced he had left Google.
Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he's now scared of the tech he helped build →