According to pioneering computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton a pause in advanced AI development would need international coordination, especially involving China—not just a U.S.-based agreement.
External auditors and regulation may be necessary because voluntary commitments from AI companies might not be enough.
Employees at major AI companies are deeply worried about the consequences of an escalating AI race, including broader instability and humanity’s future."I've been speaking to the the people that work there, and I can say that they are genuinely frightened. But, they are genuinely concerned about the fate of humanity in the next two years. When they are planning their lives, planning what to do with their lives, they are thinking about the impacts of their work, like and they you know like considering buying land somewhere because they're so scared of the instability as a result of rapid AI progress. So, the all I can say is that the people who work at these companies are completely serious when they ask for regulation because they find themselves trapped in a race and they're scared of the of the outcome of that race," said Hinton in a recent interview.
Hinton left his research role at Google in 2023 to speak more freely about AI risks.
The key point was that Hinton sees the problem not simply as one of technical safety, but as a global coordination failure: companies and countries may continue racing even when many participants recognize the dangers.
Hinton's work on artificial neural networks and deep learning helped lay the foundation for today’s AI systems. The British-Canadian computer scientist and cognitive psychologist shared the 2018 Turing Award with Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun.
