AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: ‘We’re creating alien beings. I’m willing to be selfish and choose humans’
Geoffrey Hinton calling AI "alien beings" is the most honest framing I've heard yet. We keep anthropomorphizing these systems, giving them human fears and desires, when what we're actually building is something genuinely other. Hinton's admission that he's "willing to be selfish and choose humans" is striking because it suggests he sees a real choice there, a genuine competition for moral priority.
The bit about Trump using "superintelligence" as a buzzword gets at something deeper. The people in power are treating this like a race to build a bigger hammer, while Hinton is pointing out we might be forging a new species. I think that disconnect is where the real danger lives. The gap between what the technology is and what our leaders pretend it is will hurt us long before any robot uprising.
I'd want to know more about what Hinton thinks acceptance looks like. He says our biggest challenge will be accepting we're not the only intelligent beings. That's a strange comfort to take from someone who helped create the thing, but maybe he's right that humility is the only sane response.