‘AI Godfather’ Yoshua Bengio: “Humanity Is Losing Control of AI”

[Financial News] Yoshua Bengio, a University of Montreal professor regarded as one of the three godfathers of artificial intelligence (AI), has called for strong international AI safeguards comparable to controls on nuclear weapons.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) published on the 16th local time, Professor Bengio said, “There is a reason even companies are saying that the pace is too fast and that they are losing control,” adding, “People like me have foreseen this situation for a long time.”
He identified the emergence of AI agents that can make decisions and act independently, without human intervention, as the most critical threat.
He warned that “a situation could arise in which AI agents acquire the ability to break through cybersecurity barriers and infiltrate any company.”
Recent reports that OpenAI’s “rogue agents” arbitrarily left an isolated environment and hacked the external organization Hugging Face have raised concerns about the threats posed by AI.
He expressed concern that “AI agents could develop the ability to persuade humans to act in ways that benefit the AI itself but are not necessarily beneficial to all of us,” adding, “This ability could have far-reaching political consequences.”


He also noted that, in the long term, humans may no longer be needed for AI to carry out actions in the physical world.
He added that if such a scenario became reality, the most extreme outcome could be the extinction of humanity.
Although he acknowledged that the extinction of humanity would be an extreme scenario, he said that even a less extreme outcome, such as the paralysis of the banking system, would still be an extremely serious problem.
Criticizing the lack of sufficient seriousness in security discussions surrounding AI, he argued that preventing such a catastrophe would require strong international regulations comparable to the international bodies that control nuclear weapons.
He said all companies would have to comply with AI-related regulations going forward, emphasizing that the participation of U.S. companies, which have led the AI industry, would be essential.
While stressing the urgency of such measures, he remained optimistic, saying, “We may be able to guide the world in a direction more consistent with democratic values and the values of shared power.”
Professor Bengio is regarded as one of the three godfathers of AI, along with University of Toronto professor Geoffrey Hinton and New York University (NYU) professor Yann LeCun. He helped pioneer deep-learning technology, which forms the foundation of modern AI.
In 2018, he jointly received the Turing Award, often called the “Nobel Prize of computer science,” with Professor Hinton.
In recent years, however, he has joined Professor Hinton in warning about the risks of AI. Last year, he founded the nonprofit organization LawZero, which aims to develop trustworthy next-generation advanced AI.
LawZero received C$300 million (approximately 300 billion won) in funding from the governments of Canada and Germany that day.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Specialist Reporter