One of the so-called godfathers of AI, Yoshua Bengio, claims tech companies racing for AI dominance could be bringing us closer to our own extinction through the creation of machines with “preservation goals” of their own.
Bengio, a professor at the Université de Montréal known for his foundational work related to deep learning, has for years warned about the threats posed by a hyperintelligent AI, but the rapid pace of development has continued despite his warnings. In the past year, OpenAI, Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Google’s Gemini, have all released several new models or upgrades as they try to win the AI race. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has predicted AI will surpass human intelligence by the end of the decade, while other tech leaders claim that day could come even sooner.
