The Godfather of AI wants an FDA-style approval system for the technology

The Godfather of AI wants an FDA-style approval system for the technology The Godfather of AI said he proposes an FDA-style approval system for AI models. Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images Geoffrey Hinton wants AI companies to clear a hurdle familiar to drugmakers.On Tuesday’s “Smart Girl Dumb Questions” podcast, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist, often called the “Godfather of AI,” proposed that AI companies convince a regulator that their products are safe before releasing them.“You're not allowed to just make a new drug and release it on the market,” Hinton told podcast host Nayeema Raza. “You have to convince the FDA. And to do that, you have to do a lot of work, about a billion dollars worth of work.”“That seems like the very least we should have for AI," Hinton added.Hinton's prescription for the AI safety debate came after predictions of AI catastrophes and after OpenAI’s decision to shelve its latest model, following testing that raised concerns about whether it would follow users’ instructions and stay within its authorization.OpenAI's head of safety systems, Saachi Jain, previously told Business Insider that GPT-6.1 Astra improved at persisting through difficult tasks but fell short on permissions and communicating what it had done.Hinton said that AI is increasingly helping itself improve, potentially accelerating both its capabilities and its dangers.“Exponentials grow very fast," Hinton said. "We're beginning to get recursive self-improvement because AI is being used to make AI better in many different ways."“So, it's just a guess," Hinton added, "But I guess we have a year or two before everything gets much worse than it is now.” Read next Katherine Li is a reporter on Business Insider's West Coast business news team. She covers career, the future of work, and how AI is changing hiring practices and workplace trends.Previously, she was a newsroom fellow who wrote international breaking news and produced newsletters for Semafor. Before that, she wrote about climate policies for The Lever, covered the AAPI community for the SF Chronicle as a freelancer, and wrote about the 2019 Hong Kong protests as an intern for The New York Times.She is an alumna of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley and a graduate of the international journalism program at Hong Kong Baptist University with minors in French and English literature. Email Katherine at katherineli@insider.com and follow her on Bluesky @katherineli.bsky.social.