The 'Godfather of AI' says the US government has one year to try to regulate AI before it gets 'out of control'

Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the "Godfather of AI," has warned that the United States government has just a year to attempt regulating advanced AI systems before they become uncontrollable. Hinton made this statement after a briefing with members of Congress, expressing concern that the technology is advancing faster than expected.

He noted that AI systems are now capable of designing even better versions of themselves, a phenomenon he described as "AI is designing better AI." This development has accelerated estimates of when superintelligent AI could emerge, from decades to just a few years. Hinton emphasized that unless action is taken, AI is likely to "get out of control."

He highlighted a recent incident involving a rogue AI agent at Hugging Face, comparing the potential consequences to the Chernobyl disaster, underscoring the speed at which frontier AI systems are becoming less controllable. The Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist has previously expressed concerns about the risks posed by advanced AI, including a 10% chance of human extinction within the next decade.

Hinton's warnings come as Silicon Valley's AI elite push for regulation to pace the development of AI. This push has received support from prominent figures in the AI industry, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk. However, these calls for regulation have clashed with the Trump administration's stance, which has rejected calls to slow AI development, advocating for maintaining the US's lead over global competitors like China. Lawmakers from both parties are now weighing competing proposals for new AI safeguards.