AI world · University of Toronto

Geoffrey Hinton

Professor emeritus, Nobel laureate

About

'Godfather of AI' who quit Google to warn freely about existential risk; instantly legible to general audiences.

Platformed & quoted byunvetted

  • Bill Maher — Host, Real Time and Club Random, HBO

    • Quoted / citeddirectness unclassified · Apr 17, 2026 — Maher cites Hinton's estimate of a 10-20% chance AI causes an extinction event as the crux of his 'shut it down' New Rule monologue.

  • Jake Tapper — Anchor and chief Washington correspondent, CNN

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Dec 28, 2025 — Tapper interviewed Hinton on State of the Union's AI special; Hinton said 'if we can't figure out a solution, we will be toast' and called for mandatory safety testing of AI models.
    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · May 2, 2023 — Earlier Tapper-Hinton interview where Hinton explained why he 'blew the whistle' on AI and warned it may find ways to manipulate or harm people; establishes a recurring relationship ahead of the Dec 2025 follow-up.

  • Jon Stewart — Host and executive producer, The Daily Show; host, The Weekly Show, The Weekly Show

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Oct 9, 2025 — Stewart interviewed Hinton at length on The Weekly Show in an episode titled 'AI: What Could Go Wrong?', covering AI basics, threats, and regulation; Hinton posted about the episode himself on X.

  • Gerrit De Vynck — Tech reporter, AI, The Washington Post

    • Quoted / citeddirectness unclassified · Jan 1, 2025 — De Vynck's Washington Post piece quotes Hinton, via Encode's amicus filing, saying letting OpenAI 'tear up' its nonprofit structure 'sends a very bad message to other actors in the ecosystem.'

  • Mike Allen — Co-founder and executive vice president; author, Axios AM, Axios

    • Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Feb 27, 2024 — Behind the Curtain column cites Hinton's warning that AI could 'control and obliterate us.'

  • David Remnick — Editor; host, The New Yorker Radio Hour, The New Yorker

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Nov 17, 2023 — Segment aired on Remnick's New Yorker Radio Hour (interview conducted by colleague Joshua Rothman) on existential risk and the alignment problem.

  • Fareed Zakaria — Host, Fareed Zakaria GPS; columnist, CNN / The Washington Post

    • Hosted / interviewedsource · interview · Sep 3, 2023 — Interviewed for the GPS special 'Artificial Intelligence: Its Promise...And Peril' on worst-case AI extinction scenarios; also aired as standalone segments (e.g. https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/06/11/exp-gps-0611-hinton-on-ai-threat-to-mankind.cnn).