As artificial intelligence has increasingly permeated personal lives and workplaces — whether people have wanted it or not — some of the technology's own creators have joined the ranks of its biggest skeptics.

While Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes referred to as "the godfather of AI," has remained somewhat agnostic on AI itself, he has increasingly expressed concerns over how the AI revolution will unfold under the current global system.

"What's actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers," Hinton predicted in a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times. 'It's going to create massive unemployment and a huge rise in profits. It will make a few people much richer and most people poorer."

"It's not AI's fault," he added. "That is the capitalist system."

What's happening?

As both the proficiency and adoption of AI have exploded in recent years, many skeptics' concerns, particularly involving job losses, already have been coming to fruition.

According to a recent paper by researchers at Stanford University, young people ages 22 through 25 in AI-exposed fields such as software programming and customer service have seen a 13% decline in employment.

The researchers referred to these workers and industries as "'canaries in the coal mine' which are harbingers of more widespread effects of AI."

Those who have a vested interest in the success of AI or simply believe all technological advances are worth pursuing have sought to reassure concerned parties, from government regulators to the general public, that AI will usher in an era of unprecedented abundance and new job opportunities.

For example, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, told Cleo Abram, "In 2035, that graduating college student, if they still go to college at all, could very well be leaving on a mission to explore the solar system on a spaceship in some completely new, exciting, well-paid, super-interesting job."

Hinton did not express similar optimism.

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"We don't know what is going to happen, we have no idea, and people who tell you what is going to happen are just being silly," he told the Financial Times. "We are at a point in history where something amazing is happening, and it may be amazingly good, and it may be amazingly bad."

"We can make guesses, but things aren't going to stay like they are," he concluded. 

Why are AI-related job losses important?

The unpredictable nature of AI's impact is precisely what makes it so difficult to plan for. Some, including many in the tech community, have pushed for universal basic income, or UBI, as a way to cushion the blow of mass layoffs.

Altman, for example, has been a long-standing proponent of UBI and has even funded trials examining its impacts, according to Business Insider.

Elon Musk and Vinod Khosla, a prominent tech investor, have expressed similar sentiments regarding the need for UBI. While both stand to profit massively from AI, they also have said some form of universal income is needed as a hedge against the large-scale unemployment they believe the technology will cause, per BI.

Hinton was not as certain that the loss of work could be so easily replaced.

He cautioned that UBI "won't deal with human dignity," referring to the general sense of meaning and fulfillment that humans derive from their work, according to FT. 

What's being done about AI-related job losses?

While the future of AI technology and its impact on the workforce remain unpredictable, governments and other institutions can take steps to prepare for this uncertainty.

For example, conducting further research into UBI, establishing sufficient social safety nets, and taking other measures to provide for essential human needs now rather than later will help to minimize negative impacts, regardless of what the future has in store.

According to Hinton, those involved in creating AI models should also be mindful of the kind of relationship they are developing with their creations.

"When the assistant is much smarter than you, how are you going to retain that power?" Hinton asked, per the Financial Times. "There is only one example we know of a much more intelligent being controlled by a much less intelligent being, and that is a mother and baby … if babies couldn't control their mothers, they would die."

"That is the kind of relationship we should be aiming for," Hinton added.

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