The British-Canadian computer scientist often billed as “godfather” of artificial intelligence has played down the chances that AI will wipe out humanity in the next three decades, warning that the pace of change in technology is “much faster” than expected.

The professor Geoffrey Hintonwho this year was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on artificial intelligence, he said there is a “10 to 20” percent chance that artificial intelligence will lead to human extinction within the next three decades.

Previously Hinton had said there was a 10% chance the technology would cause a catastrophic effect on humanity.

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today show if he had changed his analysis of a potential AI apocalypse and the one in 10 chance of it happening, he said: “Not really, 10 to 20 percent”.

His appreciation Hinton prodded Today’s guest editor, the former chancellor Sajid Javidto say “you are going up”, to which the Hinton answered: “If nothing else. You see, we’ve never had to deal with things smarter than us.”

And he added: “And how many examples do you know of a more intelligent thing being controlled by a less intelligent thing? There are very few examples. There is a mother and a baby. Evolution did a lot of work to allow the baby to control the mother, but this is the only example I know of.”

The London born Hintonprofessor emeritus at the University of Toronto, said that “humans would be like infants compared to the intelligence of extremely powerful AI systems.”

“I like to think of it this way: imagine yourself and a three-year-old. We will be three years old”he said.

AI can be loosely defined as computer systems that perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

Last year, Mr Hinton made headlines after he quit his job at Google to speak more openly about the dangers posed by the unlimited growth of artificial intelligenceciting concerns that “bad factors” they would use technology to harm others. A key concern of AI safety activists is that the creation of artificial general intelligence, or systems that are smarter than humans, could lead to the existential threat of technology escaping human control.

Reflecting on where he thought the development of artificial intelligence would go when he first started working in the technology, Hinton said: “I didn’t think we would be where we are now. I thought at some point in the future we would get here.”.

And he added: “Because the situation we’re in now is that most of the experts in the field believe that at some point, probably within the next 20 years, we will develop AIs that are smarter than humans. And that’s a very scary thought.”

THE Hinton said the growth rate was “very, very fast, much faster than I expected” and asked government regulation of technology.

“My concern is that the invisible hand is not going to keep us safe. So just leaving it to the profit motive of big companies won’t be enough to ensure they deploy it safely.” he said. “The only thing that can force these big companies to do more security research is government regulation.”

Hinton is one of the three “godfathers of artificial intelligence” who have won the award ACM AM Turing – the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science – for their work. However, one of the three, Mr Yann LeCunthe chief AI scientist at Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, played down the existential threat and said that artificial intelligence “could really save humanity from extinction.”