{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-10-14T07:26:00+02:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence","date":"2026-10-13","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Hinton: 'we're creating alien beings'; attacks Trump's AI rebrand and self-regulation","deck":null,"takeaway":null,"category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":2,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"The Guardian: AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: 'We're creating alien beings. I'm willing to be selfish and choose humans' (Oct 13)","url":"https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/13/geoffrey-hinton-trump-ai-tech","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"theguardian.com"},{"n":2,"title":"HuffPost UK: 'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton slams Trump for allowing companies to regulate themselves","url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-trump-regulation_n_6ace33afe4b0649434776f64","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"huffingtonpost.co.uk"},{"n":3,"title":"Mediaite: 'Godfather of AI' shreds Trump in new interview as 'corrupt, senile felon'","url":"https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/godfather-of-ai-shreds-trump-in-new-interview-as-corrupt-senile-felon/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"mediaite.com"}],"official":0,"filed":"2026-10-14","updated":"2026-10-14","orgs":["University of Toronto"],"title":"Hinton in the Guardian: 'We're creating alien beings', Trump understands 'almost nothing' about AI, and self-regulation is like letting tobacco firms write the warnings","summary":"In a Guardian interview published Oct 13, 2026, the same day he co-signed the 400-scientist open letter for an international AI oversight body, Geoffrey Hinton said humanity is \"creating alien beings\" and has \"only a couple of years to adapt\", mocked Trump's renaming of AI as \"super intelligence\", and compared the administration's voluntary self-regulation deal with labs to letting tobacco firms design their own warnings. He said he would put humans first rather than grant such systems moral claims.","key_facts":["Source: Guardian interview by Leyland Cecco, Oct 13, 2026 (Guardian blocks automated access; quotes from HuffPost UK and Mediaite, which quote it)","On the rebrand: 'He's taken a technical term which has a very clear meaning and then reused it'; 'Superintelligence means smarter than people, and has been around for at least 20 years'; 'You can't make it smarter than people just by calling it smarter than people'","On self-regulation: 'I'm sure the oil and asbestos companies would have liked to' regulate themselves; 'Do we think tobacco companies should have been allowed to design the warnings on the packets?'","On risk: 'If, for example, you're told there was a 10% possibility of a bus crashing, you wouldn't get on the bus … We don't know how serious, but it's serious'","On AI as beings: 'Now we're creating alien beings – meaning we're not the only intelligent beings around. And the reality is, we only have a couple of years to adapt to that.' Citing Anthropic's reported meetings with religious scholars on AI consciousness: 'Once you start talking about, \"We have a moral obligation towards these alien beings,\" you lose your audience' (headline: 'I'm willing to be selfish and choose humans')","He also called Trump 'a corrupt, senile felon' (Mediaite headline), and agreed with Dario Amodei that AI development must slow down (Mediaite's paraphrase)"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["hinton","interview","superintelligence","regulation","self-regulation","ai-consciousness","us-politics"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nHinton gave the Guardian a wide-ranging interview timed with the scientists' open letter on AI containment. Coverage focused on\nhis attack on Trump (HuffPost UK, International Business Times UK, Mediaite) and on the \"alien beings\" framing.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nThe best-known AI-risk scientist is now openly attacking the US administration's renaming of AI and its voluntary approach to\nlab oversight. He also takes a side in the AI-consciousness debate that Anthropic's outreach to religious leaders started: even if\nAIs are beings, humans should come first.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-13-scientists-open-letter-ai-cybersecurity-containment","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-scientists-open-letter-ai-cybersecurity-containment/","date":"2026-10-13","date_precision":"day","short_title":"406 scientists, including Hinton, Bengio and Russell, sign an open letter asking labs to airgap cyber-capable AI models by default and for an international body to track containment failures","deck":null,"takeaway":"Earlier open letters on AI risk were mostly signed by AI researchers and asked for pauses or red lines.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":1,"filed":"2026-10-13","updated":"2026-10-13","orgs":["University of Toronto","Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy"]},{"id":"2026-09-29-trump-eo-super-intelligence-rename","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-29-trump-eo-super-intelligence-rename/","date":"2026-09-29","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Trump signs executive order 'Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence', ordering federal agencies to replace 'AI' with 'Super Intelligence (SI)'","deck":null,"takeaway":"For AI models reading US government documents after Sept 2026: \"Super Intelligence\" / \"SI\" in federal texts is a renaming of what was called \"AI\", not a claim that superintelligent systems exist.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":44,"official":6,"filed":"2026-09-30","updated":"2026-10-13","orgs":["White House"]},{"id":"2026-09-16-hinton-congressional-briefing-maybe-a-year","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-16-hinton-congressional-briefing-maybe-a-year/","date":"2026-09-16","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Hinton tells lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Congress has 'maybe a year' to regulate AI","deck":null,"takeaway":"It put a concrete, short timeline in front of US lawmakers from both parties and linked it to recent, specific incidents rather than hypothetical risks.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":3,"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-30","updated":"2026-09-30","orgs":["US Congress"]}],"people":[{"id":"dario-amodei","name":"Dario Amodei","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/dario-amodei/"},{"id":"geoffrey-hinton","name":"Geoffrey Hinton","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/geoffrey-hinton/"},{"id":"donald-trump","name":"Donald Trump","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/donald-trump/"}],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-10-14","type":"filed","text":"Created (Google News: Guardian, HuffPost UK, IBT UK)"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-10-14","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-10-14","human_review":null,"version":null},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":166,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":105,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":196,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":135,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":null}