Jeffrey Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for his research on neural networks, has issued another warning about the development of technology. In his opinion, humanity would be better off not creating AI at all, as it could lead to a global catastrophe as early as 2026 or 2027.
Jeffrey Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for his research on neural networks, has issued another warning about the development of technology. In his opinion, humanity would be better off not creating AI at all, as it could lead to a global catastrophe as early as 2026 or 2027.
The computer scientist spoke about this in an interview with The Guardian.
Hinton drew attention to the threat posed by autonomous AI agents, which are increasingly carrying out cyberattacks on government and corporate systems, going beyond security sandboxes. According to the scientist, it is only a matter of time before the technology, either on its own or under the control of hackers, causes a Chernobyl-like disaster.
The scientist explains that "Chernobyl" does not necessarily mean a nuclear accident. The scenario Hinton describes involves a large-scale cyberattack on energy infrastructure. This could cause prolonged power outages or fan-shaped outages that paralyze the global financial system and power grids.
"Either later this year or next year we’ll witness Chernobyl, and that might be enough to really get people to pay attention to it. Can you imagine what would happen then? We might recover from that, but it would force world leaders to pay attention to the problem," Hinton said.
The scientist adds that in addition to destroying infrastructure, progress in the field of AI increases the risks of creating biological weapons, in particular dangerous viruses, and also threatens massive job losses in many industries. At the same time, top managers of IT companies fear such incidents for their own reasons — a strike on infrastructure could completely undermine the reputation of AI technologies, just as the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant once stopped the development of civilian nuclear energy in many countries.
