Geoffrey Hinton, the winner of the Nobel Prize in physics and the recipient of the Turing Award, on Monday criticized irresponsible behaviour by several major tech leaders, in particular Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
Hinton, also known as the "Godfather of AI," shared his view on the artificial intelligence sector in the United States with the global audience in his conversation with Jany Hejuan Zhao, the founder and CEO of NextFin.AI, during the 2025 T-EDGE that kicked off on Monday, December 8 and lasts through December 21.
The annual event organized by TMTPost Group, takes place in innovation hubs, including Silicon Valley, Toronto, Beijing and Shenzhen. In the forms of online global conversations and offline exclusive discussions, the event will bring together top scientists, entrepreneurs and investors around the world to address pressing issues of the AI era.
He noted that the environment surrounding U.S. tech companies has fundamentally shifted. “I think it's the political system those companies are living in,” he said.
The Godfather of AI discussed a wide range of AI-related issues with Jany Hejuan Zhao, the founder and CEO of NextFin.AI and publisher of Barron's China.
He contrasted today’s landscape with his experience working at Google. “When I was at google… up until 2023. I felt that google behaved fairly responsibly.” He noted that Google “were the first to develop these big chatbots” and “had them working pretty well,” but “didn't release them to the public,” partly because of concerns about interfering with Google Search. “They were fairly responsible,” he said
Hinton, also a professor in computer science at the University of Toronto, argued that the political environment changed dramatically. “But we now in the United States live in a situation where Trump's in charge. And if you don't do what Trump wants, he penalizes your company.” He claimed this dynamic has pushed AI firms into compliance: “And that's made all of the big AI companies do what Trump wants and it's very sad to see.”
He emphasized that the issue is structural rather than technological. “So I don't think it's AI's fault,” he said, adding that some CEOs face constrained choices: “for the other leaders of the companies they are aware of the risks and they'd like to mitigate the risks… But they're in a very difficult situation.”
Yet he reserved his strongest criticism for two industry figures. “For some of the leaders of big companies, I think they're behaving irresponsibly, in particular Elon musk and Mark Zuckerberg.” He added: “I think they're just irresponsible.”
By repeatedly returning to the role of political pressure, Hinton warned that the incentives shaping AI development are no longer aligned with safety or long-term planning. Instead, he argued, the political system itself is pushing companies toward decisions they would not otherwise make.
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