The "Godfather of AI" issued yet another warning about potentially imminent economic chaos during a discussion with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Fortune reported.

What's happening?

If Geoffrey Hinton didn't routinely appear in public to talk about artificial intelligence, he'd sound so much like the scientists in disaster movies — whose desperate attempts to alert the public go unheeded — to seem like a real person.

Hinton earned the "Godfather of AI" honorific for pioneering work in the field, but he famously left Google in 2023 to freely discuss his rapidly escalating concerns about AI. The fact that one of AI's progenitors is concerned full-time is worrisome by itself. 

Hinton sat down with Sen. Sanders, a lawmaker heavily focused on workers' rights, for a talk ominously entitled "AI: The Promise and Peril." Hinton has been relentlessly ringing the alarm about a threat associated with (but not caused by) AI: mass unemployment and poverty.

Hinton previously stressed that while AI won't inherently put people out of work, unscrupulous corporations might.

One persistent question about Silicon Valley's all-in approach to AI, as ABC News recently explored, is precisely how the technology will turn profits. Hinton saw one route for a return on tech's "roughly trillion dollar" investments in data centers and equipment.

"One of the main sources of [profit] is going to be by selling people AI that will do the work of workers much cheaper, and so these guys are really betting on AI replacing a lot of workers."

Why is this concerning?

Although 2025 was marked by massive spending by tech companies in an "AI arms race," credible fears of an "AI bubble" emerged as the year drew to a close, and even Google CEO Sundar Pichai conceded that the frenzy was irrational and fiscally risky.

2025 has been economically difficult for myriad reasons, not the least of which was a chaotic job market, haunted by layoffs and the specter of AI eliminating positions.

At the same time, a painful cost-of-living crisis dragged on, exacerbated by surging electric bills. A major culprit? AI data centers.

In addition to potentially inspiring job cuts and driving up energy costs, an ever-increasing number of data centers have wreaked havoc on the environment across the country. AI consumes massive amounts of water and power, straining public resources.

Moreover, major AI-invested tech firms like Amazon and OpenAI won't disclose the specifics of their environmental impact, a silence that speaks volumes. 

Communities near data centers have endured excessive air pollution and associated health effects, and on Nov. 30, The Verge covered early but worrying reports of an uptick in miscarriages and rare cancers in the vicinity of an Amazon data center.

What's being done about it?

As Hinton repeatedly stressed, AI's potential to do harm is rivaled by the putative good it can do if harnessed responsibly.

Fortune quoted Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who cautioned fellow lawmakers to learn from the past and called for oversight.

"Let's look at the fact we never did anything [about] social media. If we make that same response on AI and don't put guardrails, I think we will come to rue that day," Warner said.

Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD's exclusive Rewards Club.