Geoffrey Hinton, often called the Godfather of AI, delivered a sharp assessment of Donald Trump in a new interview. The computer scientist questioned the president’s understanding of artificial intelligence and criticized his approach to the technology. Hinton also took aim at Elon Musk and other influential tech figures while repeating his warnings about the potential dangers of increasingly powerful AI systems.
AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton slammed Donald Trump’s understanding of technology and criticized Elon Musk in a revealing interview
Speaking with The Guardian, Geoffrey Hinton called Donald Trump a “corrupt, senile felon.” The remark came as Hinton discussed Trump’s push to replace the term artificial intelligence with “super intelligence.”
Hinton argued that Trump’s use of the technical term showed he understood “almost nothing” about AI. He explained that researchers have long used superintelligence to describe systems that surpass human intelligence. Simply renaming existing AI, he argued, does not give those systems such capabilities.
The criticism follows Trump’s recent campaign to rebrand the technology. He also warned that people who refuse to use his preferred terminology would be considered “THE ENEMY”. His administration has also promoted greater industry self-regulation rather than additional federal safeguards.
Hinton strongly rejected that approach. He compared allowing AI companies to regulate themselves to industries designing their own safety warnings. The computer scientist has become one of the prominent voices calling for stronger oversight since leaving Google in 2023.
Hinton also extended his criticism to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel. Hinton characterized the three tech figures as holding anti-democratic views and claimed they believe powerful individuals should exert greater control over society while viewing Trump as useful to that goal. Those were Hinton’s characterizations, not established findings.
The Godfather of AI has repeatedly warned that advanced systems could eventually escape human control. He has estimated a 10% to 20% possibility of AI contributing to human extinction in the coming decades, though Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has publicly challenged that estimate as unsupported by scientific evidence.
For Hinton, however, that uncertainty is precisely why he believes governments should take AI risks seriously rather than leave oversight primarily to the companies developing the technology.
