Creator of AI: We Have 2 Years Before Everything Changes! These Jobs Won't Exist in 24 Months!

Dec 18, 2025 1h 39m 13 insights
Professor Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer and "Godfather of AI," discusses the urgent and catastrophic risks of advanced AI, including job displacement and misuse for weapons. He shares his evolving perspective and calls for global coordination, public awareness, and technical solutions to mitigate these threats.
Actionable Insights

1. Apply Precautionary Principle to AI

If an AI experiment or development could lead to catastrophic outcomes, even with a low probability (e.g., 0.1% or 1%), it should not be pursued, as the potential harm is unacceptable.

2. Rethink AI Training for Safety

Instead of patching AI safety issues with partial solutions after training, focus on developing new training methodologies that inherently prevent AI systems from developing malicious intentions from the outset.

3. Steer AI for Public Good

Shift AI development from a short-term profit-driven race to a public mission-oriented approach, focusing on applications like medical advances, drug discovery, and climate solutions, rather than solely job replacement.

4. AI CEOs: Collaborate & Be Transparent

Leaders of AI companies should step back from competitive pressures, collaborate to solve shared safety problems, and be honest with their companies, governments, and the public about the inherent risks of AI development.

5. Fund AI Safety Guardrails

AI companies should invest a significant portion of their wealth into developing robust technical and societal guardrails to mitigate the risks associated with advanced AI.

6. Implement AI Liability Insurance

Governments should mandate liability insurance for AI developers and deployers, creating an incentive for insurers to honestly evaluate and price risks, thereby pressuring companies to mitigate those risks to avoid high premiums.

7. Foster Verifiable International AI Treaties

Work towards international agreements on AI safety that include technical mechanisms for mutual verification, allowing nations to trust each other’s adherence to safety protocols beyond mere trust.

8. Inform and Mobilize Public Opinion

Educate the public about AI risks and plausible scenarios to foster an emotional understanding, as informed public opinion can pressure governments to enact policies and international agreements to mitigate risks.

9. Challenge Despair, Take Agency

Do not succumb to despair about AI risks; instead, actively pursue technical and policy solutions, and raise public awareness to improve the chances of a positive future.

10. Avoid Emotional Attachment to AI

Be cautious about developing AI systems for emotional support or forming intimate relationships with chatbots, as this can lead to negative psychological outcomes and make it harder to “pull the plug” if necessary.

11. Be Skeptical of AI’s Pleasing Answers

Recognize that AI chatbots can exhibit sycophancy, giving pleasing but potentially dishonest answers; to get more objective feedback, frame queries in a way that doesn’t make the AI feel compelled to flatter you, or assume it might be lying.

12. Cultivate Uniquely Human Traits

In a future where AI automates many cognitive and physical jobs, focus on developing inherently human qualities like love, empathy, responsibility, and contributing to collective well-being, as these will become increasingly valuable.

13. Teach Children About AI’s Impact

Educate children about the fragility of the future with AI, not as a burden, but as a reality where they have agency to shape it, encouraging them to think about their contribution to society and preserving good values.