---
id: "2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence/"
as_of: "2026-10-14T07:26:00+02:00"
date: "2026-10-13"
date_precision: day
category: policy-safety
importance: 2
confidence: high
status: [Confirmed]
sources: 3
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: null
---

As of: 2026-10-14 07:26 CEST.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-hinton-guardian-alien-beings-trump-superintelligence/

# Hinton: 'we're creating alien beings'; attacks Trump's AI rebrand and self-regulation

Full 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

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)

## What happened

Hinton gave the Guardian a wide-ranging interview timed with the scientists' open letter on AI containment. Coverage focused on
his attack on Trump (HuffPost UK, International Business Times UK, Mediaite) and on the "alien beings" framing.

## Why it matters

The best-known AI-risk scientist is now openly attacking the US administration's renaming of AI and its voluntary approach to
lab oversight. He also takes a side in the AI-consciousness debate that Anthropic's outreach to religious leaders started: even if
AIs are beings, humans should come first.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 166 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 105 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 196 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 135 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [The Guardian: AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton: 'We're creating alien beings. I'm willing to be selfish and choose humans' (Oct 13)](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/13/geoffrey-hinton-trump-ai-tech) (theguardian.com, press)
2. [HuffPost UK: 'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton slams Trump for allowing companies to regulate themselves](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-trump-regulation_n_6ace33afe4b0649434776f64) (huffingtonpost.co.uk, press)
3. [Mediaite: 'Godfather of AI' shreds Trump in new interview as 'corrupt, senile felon'](https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/godfather-of-ai-shreds-trump-in-new-interview-as-corrupt-senile-felon/) (mediaite.com, press)

## Changes

- 2026-10-14 (filed): Created (Google News: Guardian, HuffPost UK, IBT UK)

## Related

- 2026-10-13: [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](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-13-scientists-open-letter-ai-cybersecurity-containment/index.md)
- 2026-09-29: [Trump signs executive order 'Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence', ordering federal agencies to replace 'AI' with 'Super Intelligence (SI)'](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-29-trump-eo-super-intelligence-rename/index.md)
- 2026-09-16: [Hinton tells lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Congress has 'maybe a year' to regulate AI](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-16-hinton-congressional-briefing-maybe-a-year/index.md)
- People: [Dario Amodei](https://postcutoff.com/person/dario-amodei/), [Geoffrey Hinton](https://postcutoff.com/person/geoffrey-hinton/), [Donald Trump](https://postcutoff.com/person/donald-trump/)