The Risk Assessment of AI

Listening to the podcast The Diary of a CEO, I came across the interview with Geoffrey Hinton (like to video) often called the “Godfather of AI” for his 50 years of work pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Hinton, a Turing Award winner and teacher of current young AI leaders like Ilya, is now warning the world about the risks of AI.

From his perspective, the major risks are:

1. Misinformation & Deepfakes: AI can generate convincing fakes, distorting trust.

2. Job Displacement: Routine intellectual work is at risk of automation.

3. Autonomous Weapons: Machines making life-and-death decisions without humans.

4. Political Manipulations: Supercharged propaganda targeting elections or ideas.

5. Super-intelligence: AI outsmarting humanity.

Then I started listening likelihood and impact of each:

History shows us that in every major technological shift from the Industrial Revolution to the digital age the true force of change came from impact, not just likelihood. As AI evolves, we must keep our focus on the risks with the greatest potential impact, especially the existential threat of superintelligence. Preparing today is the only way to safeguard tomorrow.