AI will drive profits but wipe out jobs, warns godfather of AI in sharp capitalism critique

Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” has warned of deep economic disruption as AI accelerates. In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Hinton said AI will boost corporate profits — at the expense of human jobs — fuelling inequality and mass unemployment.

“What’s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers. 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,” Hinton said.

Hinton, who won the Nobel Prize last year for his groundbreaking work in AI, has been increasingly vocal about the risks of rapid technological growth. He cautioned that without proper oversight, AI could destabilise labour markets worldwide.

“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. We are at a point in history where something amazing is happening, and 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,” he said, underlining the unpredictable nature of AI’s path.

Earlier, he warned that AI systems could begin communicating in ways humans can’t understand or control. He also flagged that AI is already capable of generating harmful ideas and may soon operate beyond human comprehension.

Hinton criticised major tech companies for downplaying the dangers, singling out individuals like Demis Hassabis of DeepMind as exceptions. “Many of the people in big companies, I think, are downplaying the risk publicly. People like Demis, for example, really do understand the risks and really want to do something about it,” he said.

“The rate at which they’ve started working now is way beyond what anybody expected,” he added.