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TMTPOST -- Geoffrey Hinton, the pioneering computer scientist often dubbed the 「godfather of AI,」 has said that his ex-girlfriend used OpenAI』s ChatGPT to break up with him—by having it explain "what a rat" he was.
「She got the chatbot to explain how awful my behavior was and gave it to me,」 Hinton told the Financial Times. 「I didn』t think I had been a rat, so it didn』t make me feel too bad. I met somebody I liked more—you know how it goes.」
The AI-assisted breakup was just a fun part of his interview with the British newspaper and the wide-ranging interview touched on many more serious issues. The 77-year-old Nobel Prize-winning scientist issued stark warnings about AI』s potential to deepen inequality, disrupt job markets, and even threaten humanity』s existence.
「What』s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers,」 Hinton said. 「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.」
His remarks echo previous warnings that tech companies are prioritizing short-term gains over long-term risks. Although layoffs tied directly to AI have yet to spike, data from the New York Federal Reserve shows companies using AI are far more likely to retrain workers than fire them—for now. Still, recent college graduates are already feeling the squeeze, with entry-level opportunities beginning to shrink.
One exception, Hinton says, may be healthcare. If AI could make doctors five times as efficient, 「we could all have five times as much health care for the same price.」 But for most workers in routine or repetitive jobs, the outlook is grim.
Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize in physics last year, also pushed back against OpenAI CEO Sam Altman』s idea of universal basic income as a solution to AI-driven displacement. 「It won』t deal with human dignity,」 he said, emphasizing the emotional and societal value people derive from work.
Hinton』s concern isn』t limited to economics. In April, he estimated there』s a 10% to 20% chance that superintelligent AI could wipe out humanity, either due to its own actions or through manipulation by bad actors—such as using AI to engineer bioweapons. He criticized the Trump administration for failing to regulate AI more seriously, contrasting it with China』s more proactive approach.
Despite the warnings, Hinton acknowledged the uncertainty around AI』s trajectory. 「We don』t know what is going to happen… it may be amazingly good, and it may be amazingly bad. We can make guesses, but things aren』t going to stay like they are.」
As for his 2023 departure from Google, Hinton dispelled media claims that he quit to speak more openly about AI』s risks. 「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. 「And I thought, since I am leaving anyway, I could talk about the risks.」
