Nobel winner Geoffrey Hinton warns AI will create massive unemployment

Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning “godfather of AI,” warned that artificial intelligence will create massive unemployment while boosting corporate profits as companies replace workers with AI systems. The renowned computer scientist attributes this outcome not to the technology itself but to the capitalist system, echoing his earlier concerns about AI companies prioritizing short-term profits over long-term consequences.

What he’s saying: Hinton predicts a stark economic divide as AI adoption accelerates across industries.

• “What’s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s going to create massive unemployment and a huge rise in profits. It will make a few people much richer and most people poorer. That’s not AI’s fault, that is the capitalist system.”
• He dismissed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s universal basic income proposal, arguing it “won’t deal with human dignity” and the value people derive from having jobs.

Current employment landscape: While mass layoffs haven’t materialized yet, early indicators suggest AI is already constraining job opportunities.

• Evidence shows AI is particularly shrinking entry-level positions where recent college graduates typically start their careers.
• A New York Fed survey found companies using AI are more likely to retrain employees than fire them, though layoffs are expected to increase in coming months.

Industry exceptions: Healthcare emerges as the one sector Hinton believes will remain relatively protected from AI displacement.

• “If you could make doctors five times as efficient, we could all have five times as much health care for the same price,” he explained in a June interview.
• “There’s almost no limit to how much health care people can absorb—[patients] always want more health care if there’s no cost to it.”

AI risk assessment: The 77-year-old scientist maintains his warnings about AI’s existential threats, estimating a 10-20% chance the technology could wipe out humanity after superintelligence development.

• He categorizes AI dangers into two types: risks the technology poses to humanity’s future and consequences of AI manipulation by bad actors.
• Hinton warned AI could enable bioweapon development and criticized the Trump administration’s reluctance to regulate AI, while noting China takes the threat more seriously.

Personal AI usage: Despite his warnings, Hinton actively uses AI tools in his daily life, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT as his preferred platform.

• He primarily uses the chatbot for research purposes.
• In a humorous anecdote, he revealed a former girlfriend used ChatGPT “to tell me what a rat I was” during their breakup, with the AI explaining his allegedly poor behavior.

Why he left Google: Contrary to media reports suggesting he quit to speak freely about AI dangers, Hinton clarified his departure was simply about retirement.

• “I left because I was 75, I could no longer program as well as I used to, and there’s a lot of stuff on Netflix I haven’t had a chance to watch,” he said.
• “I had worked very hard for 55 years, and I felt it was time to retire… And I thought, since I am leaving anyway, I could talk about the risks.”

The uncertainty factor: Despite his dire predictions, Hinton acknowledges the profound unpredictability surrounding AI’s future impact.

• “We don’t know what is going to happen, we have no idea, and people who tell you what is going to happen are just being silly,” he said.
• “We are at a point in history where something amazing is happening, and it may be amazingly good, and it may be amazingly bad.”