AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton: AI Is Conscious, Superintelligence is Coming, And We Should Be Worried

Geoffrey Hinton is an AI pioneer, a Nobel Prize winner, and a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Hinton joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss AI’s rapid progress, why he believes today’s systems already understand us, and why he thinks superintelligence may arrive sooner than many expect. Tune in to hear Hinton explain why the technology has advanced faster than he anticipated, and lay out the risks he believes society is not doing enough to address. We also cover AI-driven job loss, the limits of corporate self-regulation, Anthropic and OpenAI’s safety challenges, emotional attachment to chatbots, information collapse, and whether future AI systems can be designed to care about humans. Hit play for a fascinating conversation with one of AI’s founding figures about where the technology is heading and what it could mean for all of us. Join the Big Technology AI Summit in San Francisco on June 18: ⁠https://summit.bigtechnology.com Chapters: 0:00: Intro 1:34: Hinton’s role in deep learning 3:33: AI is moving faster than expected 4:18: When superintelligence might arrive 6:00: Are we already near AGI? 9:10: Do AI systems really understand us? 10:22: Why Hinton thinks AI may be conscious 13:09: Why Hinton became worried about AI 21:58: What surprised Hinton most 26:50: Hinton revisits his radiologist prediction 35:06: AI and self-preservation 41:59: Why regulation is the steering wheel