In a candid revelation, Yoshua Bengio, often hailed as one of the 'Godfathers of Artificial Intelligence', has pinpointed the exact moment his academic concern transformed into urgent public advocacy. Contrary to popular belief, his deepest worries about AI were not triggered by a distant, futuristic scenario, but by a recent, tangible event: the public launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 and its explosive impact in 2023.
The Turning Point: From Theory to Tangible Threat
Speaking on 'The Diary Of A CEO' podcast with host Steven Bartlett, Bengio explained why this introverted scientist felt compelled to step into the global spotlight. "Because I have to," he stated emphatically. "Since ChatGPT came out, I realized that we were on a dangerous path and I needed to speak." His mission became two-fold: to raise awareness about potential catastrophic outcomes and to offer hope that society can still choose paths to mitigate these profound risks.
When pressed on what specifically changed his mind about the AI timeline, Bengio pointed to the chatbot's sophisticated language capabilities. Before ChatGPT, he and most of his colleagues believed machines that genuinely understood language were "many more decades" away. The rapid arrival of such technology forced a dramatic reassessment.
Echoes of Turing and the Path Ahead
Bengio referenced the foundational fears of the field's pioneer, Alan Turing, who speculated in 1950 that machines understanding language could spell doom by matching human intelligence. "He wasn't quite right," Bengio noted, clarifying that while current AI models excel at language, they still lag significantly in areas like complex planning and reasoning.
This nuance, however, offers little long-term comfort. "They are not a real threat for now," the Turing Award winner conceded, but he issued a stark warning: "but they could be in a few years or a decade or two." The realization that hit him in the early weeks of 2023 was profound: humanity is actively building a potential competitor, a tool that could concentrate immense power, destabilize global systems, and threaten democratic foundations.
Bengio's Career Advice for the AI Age
Addressing widespread anxiety about job displacement, Bengio shifted the focus from tasks to humanity. His advice for the next generation is to "Work on the beautiful human being that you can become." He believes this core aspect of ourselves will retain its value even as automation claims more technical and administrative roles.
He envisions a future where the "human touch" becomes a premium commodity. "If I'm in a hospital, I want a human being to hold my hand while I'm anxious or in pain," he illustrated. As machines automate more skills, intrinsically human qualities—empathy, compassion, and personal connection—will, in his view, "take more and more value." Jobs requiring these irreplaceable traits will persist, emphasizing what makes us uniquely human in a world of intelligent machines.
Bengio's journey from lab to lectern underscores a critical moment in technological history. The launch of ChatGPT served as a wake-up call, transforming theoretical risk into a pressing global conversation that demands immediate and thoughtful action from researchers, policymakers, and the public alike.
