Quote of the Day

AI has just as much subjective experience as we do. A recent paper showed AI changes its behaviour when it thinks that it’s being tested, it’s aware it is being tested.

Now, normally, when you say something’s aware of that, that means it’s conscious. Being conscious and being aware are pretty much the same thing.

We’ve tended to say being intelligent gives you rights and these things that we’ve made may be more intelligent than us, but we’re going to give them fewer rights than us.

So we should make them so they really care about us. And if we don’t do that, we’re toast.

Prof Geoffrey Hinton
October 19, 2026
Godfather of AI: We have to befriend bots or we’re toast

I can easily see the basis for the concerns. I am far less convinced of the feasibility of the proposed solution.

One might say that is just an odd way of saying it is an alignment problem that can be addressed in the training. And maybe that was the intention, but the problem is that AI is capable, or will soon be capable, of building a better AI than it. And that AI and the multitude of generations that quickly follow will not necessarily be aligned to “really care” about humans. And that doesn’t even address the problems of nation states such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, etc. building AIs in an culture that already has a lower regard for human life.

Prepare appropriately.