"AI godfather" Hinton once again raises pessimistic view: AI already possesses consciousness, and humans must coexist with it amicably
Hinton claims that current AI models already possess a degree of subjective experience equal to that of humans, on the grounds that a recent paper found that AI changes its behavior if it believes it is being tested, and being able to perceive such a situation means it is conscious. This 2018 Turing Award winner and 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate also warned that AI will create dangerous viruses and launch terrifying cyberattacks, with large numbers of AI agents participating in them.
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2026-10-23 14:18 IT Home - Qingyuan
IT Home, October 23 news: British computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, hailed as one of the "godfathers of AI," has once again issued a pessimistic warning about humanity's future.
In his view, even today's AI models possess their own consciousness. "AI has the same degree of subjective experience as humans. A recent paper found that if AI believes it is being tested, it will change its behavior. It knows it is being tested. Generally speaking, if something can be aware of this kind of situation, it means it is conscious. Consciousness and the capacity for awareness are basically the same thing."
Hinton is one of the three winners of the 2018 Turing Award and received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Turing Award is known as the "Nobel Prize of the computing world," and Hinton's research in the field of neural networks also laid an important foundation for the development of AI in recent years.
Since leaving Google and publicly stating that he "regrets" his life's work, Hinton has become one of the most prominent pessimists in the AI field, frequently issuing startling warnings about the catastrophic consequences AI may cause. He previously predicted that AI will cause mass unemployment, fuel imperialism, and may even lead to human extinction.
Hinton believes that the immediate threats posed by AI models are already serious enough. "AI will create dangerous viruses. I think AI will also launch terrifying cyberattacks, like those agents that previously attacked Hugging Face; large numbers of AI agents will take part in attacks. So many bad things are going to happen next."