Pioneering computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, whose work earned him a Nobel Prize and the nickname “godfather of AI,” said artificial intelligence would trigger increases in unemployment and profits.
In a wide range interview with the Financial Times last year, the old Google The scientist clarified his reasons for leaving the tech giant, raised the alarm about potential AI threats and revealed how he uses the technology. But he also predicted who the winners and losers would be.
“What’s really going to happen is the rich are going to use AI to replace workers,” Hinton said in September. “This will create massive unemployment and a huge increase in profits. It will make some people much richer and most people poorer. It’s not the fault of AI, it’s the capitalist system.”
This echoed comments he made to Fortune in August 2025, when he declared AI companies care more about short-term profits as the long-term consequences of technology.
Layoffs have not increased, but there is growing evidence that AI is reducing opportunities, particularly in the telecommunications sector. entry level where recent college graduates begin their careers.
A survey conducted at the time by the New York Fed found that companies using AI were much more likely to retrain their employees than fire themalthough layoffs are expected to increase in the coming months.
Hinton said earlier health is the only sector that will be safe potential jobs armageddon.
“If we could make doctors five times more efficient, we could all get five times more health care for the same price,” he said. explain on the Diary of a CEO YouTube series in June 2025. “There is almost no limit to the amount of health care people can absorb: (patients) always want more health care if it has no cost. »
Hinton nevertheless believes that jobs that perform mundane tasks will be taken over by AI, while sparing some jobs that require a high level of skills.
In his interview with the FThe also rejected OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s idea of providing a universal basic income as AI disrupts the economy and reduces demand for workers, saying it “won’t address human dignity” and the value people get from work.
Hinton has long warned of the dangers of AI lacking safeguards, believing 10% to 20% chance of technology wiping out humans after the development of superintelligence.
According to him, the dangers of AI fall into two categories: the risk that the technology itself poses to the future of humanity and the consequences of the manipulation of AI by people with ill intentions.