Warnings from Stephen Hawking and Geoffrey Hinton on AI.

Warnings from Stephen Hawking and Geoffrey Hinton on AI.

This weekend the film Tron directed by Joachim Rønning, was released. The film is about Ares (Jared Leto) “who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings” (Disney).

This reminded me of the words that the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) -recognized for his studies about the Big Bang and black holes– has said during an interview he gave to the BBC in 2014:

“The development of a complete artificial intelligence could mean the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

Another renowned scientist, Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called godfather of AI, who left Google at the age of seventy-five, said no to Elon Musk when he wanted to hire him as an X adviser, and who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024 for his discoveries on artificial neural networks, has also warned about AI during an interview with TVO tonight (2025):

“(…) there’s a 10 to 20% chance that he’ll take over, and we’re at the point in history where there’s still a chance that we can figure out how to develop superintelligent AI and make it safe, but for the moment we don’t know how to do it and large companies are motivated by short-term profits”.

Both Hawking and Hinton emphasized the urgency of ethical frameworks, international collaboration, and public awareness.

The warnings from Hawking and Hinton served as a call to action, in fact, Governments worldwide have defined AI regulations. Among others, the European Union, with the EU AI Act introducing a risk-based framework, banning manipulative AI and enforcing strict rules for high-risk systems like biometric surveillance and algorithmic decision-making. And the United States, with the AI Action Plan and SANDBOX Act, promoting innovation through regulatory flexibility, allowing developers to test AI in controlled environments while maintaining safety standards.

As society, we must advocate for responsible AI development and support transparent and inclusive regulation.

Do you believe current regulations are enough to safeguard humanity from AI risks?

I read you.