---
id: "2026-11-03-hinton-better-off-without-ai"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-03-hinton-better-off-without-ai/"
as_of: "2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00"
date: "2026-11-03"
date_precision: day
category: policy-safety
importance: 2
confidence: medium
status: [Partly confirmed]
sources: 4
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-11-08"
---

As of: 2026-11-09 21:13 CET.
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/2026-11-03-hinton-better-off-without-ai/

# Geoffrey Hinton: 'it might turn out we were better off without AI'

The Guardian reported on Nov 3, 2026 that Geoffrey Hinton said it might turn out humanity would have been better off without AI; follow-up coverage says he again put the chance of AI causing human extinction at 10–20%, warned of possible economic or power-grid disruption within a year, and urged developers to put safety before speed. The story reached 309 points on Hacker News.

## Key facts
- Quoted by Futurism (Nov 7) from the Guardian interview: 'Either later this year or next year we'll see Chernobyl, and that may be enough to make people really pay attention'
- Headline quote per the Guardian/HN: 'it might turn out we were better off without AI'
- Daily Times (Nov 4) paraphrase: 10–20% extinction risk; hard-to-control autonomous agents; job losses and inequality; benefits in medicine acknowledged
- We could not open the Guardian article; the venue of the interview is not confirmed

## What happened

Written from the headline and secondary coverage; the Guardian page was not readable for us.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 187 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 126 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 217 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 156 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Futurism: AI godfather says to get ready for a Chernobyl-style event](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-godfather-chernobyl-blackout) (futurism.com, press)
2. [The Guardian: AI godfather Geoffrey Hinton – better off without AI](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/nov/03/ai-godfather-geoffrey-hinton-better-off-without-ai) (theguardian.com, press)
3. [Daily Times: Hinton warns humanity might have been better off without technology](https://dailytimes.com.pk/1576638/godfather-of-ai-geoffrey-hinton-warns-humanity-might-have-been-better-off-without-technology/) (dailytimes.com.pk, press)
4. [Hacker News discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50363554) (news.ycombinator.com, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-11-08: Chernobyl quote via Futurism
- 2026-11-05 (filed): Created

## Related

- People: [Geoffrey Hinton](https://postcutoff.com/person/geoffrey-hinton/)