Geoffrey Hinton warns AI could trigger major disruption to banking and power systems

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Hinton warns of AI disruptions

Highlights

Geoffrey Hinton warns that AI could soon trigger major incidents, including temporary shutdowns in banking or energy systems, resembling a Chornobyl-type crisis.
Hinton calls for strong oversight of the AI industry, suggesting regulation similar to U.S. FDA checks, and expresses distrust toward executives like OpenAI's Sam Altman.
Hinton sees the next 10 years as critical, with possible outcomes from radical abundance to deep inequality, employment shocks, and heightened political scrutiny over AI's risks.

Warnings over critical system failures

The Guardian reports that Hinton, a Nobel laureate widely known for his foundational work in artificial intelligence, says AI could be close to causing a major incident such as a temporary shutdown in banking or power networks.

He says humanity might ultimately have been better off without AI, while also arguing that the coming 10 years are likely to show whether the technology's risks can be controlled. In his view, the outcome ranges from what he describes as radical abundance to a much darker scenario marked by deep inequality, employment shocks and broader cultural upheaval.

Hinton also points to unusual AI-related incidents this summer as signs that a larger failure could emerge. He compares the need for a wake-up call to a Chornobyl-type moment, not in nuclear terms but as a crisis big enough to force political leaders to respond more decisively.

Calls for tighter oversight of AI industry

His latest comments are shaped in part by the documentary "AI: Probably Nothing to Worry About", which he says could play an important role in raising public awareness of the technology's dangers.

Hinton also expresses distrust of executives at major AI companies, including OpenAI's Sam Altman, saying they appear to be driven more by money than by ethical concerns. He argues that AI should face stronger oversight before products are released, drawing a comparison with U.S. Food and Drug Administration style checks for pharmaceuticals.

Even so, he remains cautiously optimistic that AI can still be developed safely if governments and companies put enough safeguards in place. That stance leaves the sector facing a dual challenge, preserving innovation while proving that increasingly powerful systems will not undermine financial networks, energy grids or wider economic stability.

Our earlier article on the Bank of England’s push for “bare metal” recovery planning explained why regulators want banks to be able to restore core services even if primary systems are compromised. We noted that as AI increases the scale and complexity of cyber attacks, supervisors are urging deeper end-to-end resilience and clearer recovery options to prevent systemic disruptions.

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