AI 'Godfather' Calls for FDA-Style Safety Tests Before New Models Launch

Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as the "Godfather of AI," wants AI companies to pass a safety check before releasing new models. Speaking on Tuesday's "Smart Girl Dumb Questions" podcast, Hinton proposed an approval system modeled on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency that must approve drugs before they go on sale. "You're not allowed to just make a new drug and release it on the market," Hinton told 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," he added. Hinton's proposal comes as AI safety concerns grow. OpenAI recently shelved its latest model, GPT-6.1 Astra, after testing raised questions about whether it would follow user instructions and stay within its approved limits. Saachi Jain, OpenAI's head of safety systems, told Business Insider that Astra handled difficult tasks well but struggled with permissions and with reporting what it had done. Hinton also warned that AI is increasingly being used to improve AI itself — a process called "recursive self-improvement." He said this could speed up both the technology's abilities and its risks. "Exponentials grow very fast," he 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."