Geoffrey Hinton reveals the surprising truth about AI’s limits and potential

In this wide-ranging interview, the Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton reflects on the journey from the early days of neural networks to today’s breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, sharing unique insights from decades of pioneering research. Discover why Hinton believes that scaling up AI models leads to creativity and reasoning that rivals (and may eventually surpass) human intelligence. Hear his candid thoughts on how language models learn, why intuition and training data matter, and what current models still have to learn from the human brain. This conversation between Geoffrey Hinton and Joel Hellermark was originally recorded in April 2024 at the Royal Institute of Great Britain in London. An edited version was premiered at Sana AI Summit 2024 in Stockholm, Sweden. What's in this episode The surprising similarities (and differences) between AI and the human mind Why multi-modality and fast weights could be the next frontiers in AI How AI models might develop subjective experience and even “feelings” Hinton’s advice to young researchers about trusting intuition and challenging consensus Reflections on leadership, collaboration, and building teams for breakthrough science About Geoffrey Hinton and Joel Hellermark Geoffrey Hinton has been called “the godfather of AI” and is considered one of the most prominent thought leaders on the emergence of artificial intelligence. He has served as a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon and a fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto. In 2023, Geoffrey left his position at Google so that he could speak freely about AI’s impact on humankind. Joel Hellermark is the founder and CEO of Sana. An enterprising child, Joel taught himself to code in C at age 13 and founded his first company, a video recommendation technology, at 16. In 2021, Joel topped the Forbes 30 Under 30. Sana has been recognized on the Forbes AI 50 as one of the startups developing the most promising business use cases of artificial intelligence. Interview chapters Early inspirations (00:00:00) Meeting Ilya Sutskever (00:05:05) Ilya’s intuition (00:06:12) Understanding of LLMs (00:09:00) Scaling neural networks (00:15:15) What is language? (00:18:30) The GPU revolution (00:21:35) Human Brain Insights (00:25:05) Feelings & analogies (00:29:05 Problem selection (00:32:58) Gradient processing (00:35:21) Ethical implications (00:36:52) Selecting talent (00:40:15) Developing intuition (00:41:49) The road to AGI (00:43:50) Proudest moment (00:45:00) About Strange Loop Strange Loop is a podcast about how artificial intelligence is reshaping the systems we live and work in. Each episode features deep, unscripted conversations with thinkers and builders reimagining intelligence, leadership, and the architectures of progress. The goal is not just to follow AI’s trajectory, but to question the assumptions guiding it. Subscribe for more conversations at the edge of AI and human knowledge.