--- title: "Researcher Who Just Won the Nobel Prize Quit Google to Warn About Evil AI Coming for Us All" description: "Both of the men who won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics are AI pioneers — and one of them is considered the technology's \"godfather.\"" date: "2024-10-09" modified: "2024-10-09" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/nobel-prize-winner-ai-godfather" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Google" tags: - "geoffrey hinton" - "Google" - "Nobel Prize" - "nobel prize in physics" --- # Researcher Who Just Won the Nobel Prize Quit Google to Warn About Evil AI Coming for Us All ![Both of the men who won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics are AI pioneers — and one of them is considered the technology's "godfather."]() *\Image: Geoff Robins / AFP via Getty\* Both of the men who won this year's [Nobel Prize in Physics]() are artificial intelligence pioneers — and one of them is considered the technology's "godfather." As [*Reuters* reports](), American physicist John Hopfield and AI expert Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the coveted prize this week. Considered the "godfather of AI," Hinton's research in 2012 [laid the groundwork]() for today's neural networks — but in 2023, he [quit his job at Google]() to join a chorus of critics sounding alarm bells about the technology. In an [interview with the *New York Times*]() last year about leaving his job as a vice president and engineering fellow at the tech giant, Hinton said he'd previously thought of Google as a "proper steward" of the powerful technology. That's until [Microsoft partnered with OpenAI]() to unleash the latter's GPT-4 large language model (LLM), which powers ChatGPT, onto the masses. Though he didn't believe that AI was anywhere near its zenith at the time, the 76-year-old computer scientist suggested he saw the writing on the wall with the Microsoft-OpenAI deal. "Most people thought it was way off. And I thought it was way off," Hinton told the newspaper at the time. "I thought it was 30 to 50 years or even longer away." "Obviously," he continued, "I no longer think that." Prior to leaving Google and joining the likes of Elon Musk and other luminaries in signing an [open letter]() calling for a pause on AI development, [Hinton took to *CBS News*]() to warn that the world had reached a "[pivotal moment]()" in terms of the technology. "I think it's very reasonable for people to be worrying about these issues now," he told *CBS* at the time, "even though it's not going to happen in the next year or two." Now a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, Hinton has [made it abundantly clear]() in the roughly 18 months since his Google departure that he thinks that [AI may escape human control]() at any time — and once it does, [all hell may break loose](). "Here we’re dealing with something where we have much less idea of what’s going to happen and what to do about it," the computer scientist said [during a conversation with the Nobel committee](). "I wish I had a sort of simple recipe that if you do this, everything’s going to be okay. But I don’t." Considered the [leading AI "doomer"]() for his grim outlook on the [technology he helped birth](), Hinton said when speaking to the Nobel committee that he was very surprised to learn he'd won the award and had been unaware that he'd even been nominated. "Hopefully it’ll make me more credible," he said of winning the Nobel, "when I say these things really do understand what they’re saying." **More on AI doomers:** [*AI Researcher Slams OpenAI, Warns It Will Become the "Most Orwellian Company of All Time"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()