Geoffrey Hinton warns EU leaders AI could outsmart humans within 18 months

What happened

The Nobel laureate, often called the godfather of AI, was scheduled to brief the leaders of all 27 EU member states.

It is the estimate he now hears from Paul Christiano, the AI safety researcher whom OpenAI added to its board in September. The accelerated timeline for AI surpassing human intelligence underscores urgent global governance and ethical challenges for policymakers.

On Friday in Dublin, he brought a much shorter timeline to the most powerful room in Europe. That is a long way from the decade he used to cite.

A timeline that scares even Hinton The 18-month window is not one Hinton invented on his own. Hinton has said that timeline frightens even him.

Coming from the person who helped build the foundations of modern AI, that is not a small admission.

Add your holdings to find related stories in Pro. The summit took place on November 13, 2026.