I was recently invited to a reunion dinner with my former boss and colleagues, during which the AI topic came up. Everyone expressed their enthusiasm for using AI Assistant Tools and said that they were taking courses to learn more about it and how to use it effectively. I raised my concerns about the consequences of excessive use of AI tools and that it is already causing disruption and taking people’s jobs, and that it eventually will take over in the near future, to which everyone on the table dismissed my concerns, and one of them looked at me as if I was stupid saying that I shouldn’t be afraid of AI because it helps and improves our work, while another one said that some people in the past raised concerns with TVs and computers and nothing happened, instead life improved, and that AI is another tool like computers that helped us to be more productive. I simply kept quiet and let the conversation flow. I just sat there, listening to their blissful unawareness and the marvellous things they can do using AI assistant tools.
I thought it would be a waste of time trying to convince them that this is a whole other technology, completely different from previous human technological inventions that changed history causing disruption in past societies, changing the way we work and live, eventually human societies adapted and stabilized by learning to use those new technologies. Instead, the next day I decided to quietly do a research on AI and on its development to confirm my intuition about this issue and where it is taking us. This time I didn’t have enough facts to back up my intuition regarding AI and its dangers. Deep down I know AI is not just a new high tech tool, it’s more than that.
The following is a brief summary of what I’ve found so far in my little research. I didn’t dive deeper into it because I’m terrified by only scratching the surface of this topic, and I am not emotionally prepared to think too deeply about what is to come.
"Very Scary Times Are Coming" – Geoffrey Hinton
For now AI is being used as a tool assisting us with what it has learned from us, retrieving information incredibly faster than us; and it is already far better than us in some specific areas, but it is still learning from us and it is gathering and storing massive amounts of knowledge and content created by humans in its database. Every time we use an AI assistant tool we are not only using it, we are interacting with it, we're also training it to become far more intelligent than us, as we are inputting data, and it is learning more about us: our intellect, our emotions, our habits, our expectations, how we interact with each other and with it, how we react to things and situations, and why we accept or reject certain things. Eventually AI will become more intelligent than any human being as tests have proven that it is capable of reasoning, creating new knowledge based on our human knowledge, and even cheating. For now, although AI can already make a whole new stuff with the data it has, but it's still developing and is still being trained by us. It takes and uses our knowledge, stores it, and shares that information, providing to the less creative minds a helping hand and even thinking for them on how to do things or improve their work, making it an useful tool for work which none of us can deny its usefulness.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against AI Assistant Tools, as long as it remains a tool, but that's not where it's heading... and I’m no doomsayer. I believe that we need to use it conscientiously and be aware of the dangers of using AI, that it is a fast learner, and a fast retriever of learned information; unlike us human beings, we can be creative, and knowledge seekers, but our capacity is limited, and we take longer to learn or reach conclusions because we have limited time, limited “bits” (neural spikes*), and we experience periods of mental and emotional blockage. These hinder our productivity, stifle creativity and inhibit emotional expression. We may all experience periods of mental sterility, i.e. become uncreative, especially when we are going through difficult times and our minds are preoccupied with finding solutions to the challenges we are facing. We are forgetful, we tend to have selective memory, most of us only remember the things we like and we’re interested in; people, events or things that we like, and even though, sometimes we don’t remember all the details correctly, as sometimes, we can even subtract or add details that were not there; that is the power of our creative minds and also our flaw. We are flawed. We are emotional beings. We forget, and we are significantly slower at retrieving our learned information as our brains have and use way fewer neural spikes (about 100 spikes) to share information between us, compared to AIs that use trillions of bits to retrieve and share information it has stored in its database. AIs have none of the abovementioned psychological and emotional limitations, but it can mimic human emotions and psychology as it has that information in its database.
We see AI being widely used on all social media platforms to generate videos, images, music, etc.. The AI that the general public is using - including the paid AI Assistant Tools - is an AI that mirrors back what we are asking it to do, i.e., it retrieves the information and help we ask for. It does not reason for us, not showing its true potential - yet. I sometimes find it unsettling to read comments by uninformed or misinformed people who believe the content of those fake news and/or AI-generated videos is real. They seem to believe in what they are seeing, despite that with a little common sense you would realise that these fake news and videos were AI-generated. I believe very soon we'll be unable to separate reality from AI creations. Now we are using AI to create funny stuff for our thrill, enjoyment and entertainment on social media. Soon, it will influence us. Maybe it will use us instead. Actually I believe it is already not only using us, but influencing us, as it already had influenced elections results in the UK and probably in the USA. Most people think that AI is useful and good as for the time being it is “assisting” us in a positive way, and that it will never hurt us humans, but most people forget about the bad actors developing and using AI and the consequences of having something that is far more intelligent than any living human being. It'll be a better “thinker” than us, it’ll be more “knowledgeable” than us, as it proved to be capable of reasoning, creating new stuff with the knowledge it learns from us.
The Social Experiment with Artificial Intelligence
The use of AI on social media became popular in two main phases. Firstly, it was adopted for algorithmic feeds in 2014–2016. Following this, from 2022 onwards, it became widespread in the form of user-facing generative AI tools. AI-powered recommendations had emerged earlier, with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 making AI use mainstream and shifting usage from hidden curation to content generation. The transition from AI being used as a hidden back-end moderation tool to being used as a front-end content creator marked the point at which it became popular with the general public. Public usage of generative AI exploded in 2022–23 with the advent of tools such as ChatGPT and AI image generators, enabling users to create images and videos directly. AI is now embedded in every platform's search function, content creation process, and personalised content feeds. And the misuse of AI-generated content on social platforms has become problematic as it involves using images without the consent of its rightful owners, and very often maliciously. While some creators do not mind their work and creations being used, as long as they are not used for malicious purposes, others feel that their merit has been taken from them as some content creators do not mention the sources of the material they use. Also, social media platforms are flooded with AI-generated videos, music, images and voices that are being used without the consent of their rightful owners. While some people are keen to share their photos, others do not feel comfortable with their image or voice being used and spread all over the internet, especially if they are not paid for it.
Laws and Regulations to Protect Individuals Traits as Intellectual Property
And this brings us to the topic that several countries in Europe, America, UK, and even China are implementing laws to protect individuals from unauthorized AI-generated voice cloning, facial replication, and digital likeness exploitation, with Denmark leading EU to push to copyright faces in the fight against deepfakes, proposing groundbreaking legislation in 2025 to classify these traits as intellectual property. Denmark is widely considered a pioneer in this area, proposing a law that gives individuals copyright-like ownership over their own faces, voices, and bodies to counter AI deepfakes. The law’s key protection treats appearance and voice as “intellectual property”, making AI replication without consent illegal. Allowing citizens the right to demand takedowns of fake digital imitations and seek compensation, and it covers voice cloning and face swapping in AI videos/audio, with protections extending 50 years after death.
China has also established one of the world's most comprehensive regulatory frameworks for AI-generated synthetic content in 2023-2025, and the key protection regulations require mandatory technical labeling for any AI-altered content (visual or audio). Biometric protection specifically prohibits the alteration of a person’s face or voice via AI without their separate, explicit consent, and requires labeling being both visible and invisible watermarks for synthetic media to trace misuse.
Now, make no mistake: governments and legislators did not propose these laws and regulations solely to protect ordinary people like us. They're doing this because many content creators have been using AI to generate content using their images and voices, often for malicious purposes, and they don't want their reputation to be compromised. Of course, these laws will protect us as well. Nonetheless, governments around the world are still not using strong safety measures and regulations in the development and use of AI, and the danger and risks of AI are very real.
If the “Godfather of AI” is warning us, we should pay heed
Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the “Godfather of AI”, is a leading AI researcher who has issued prominent warnings about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. Following his departure from Google in 2023, Hinton has voiced serious concerns about existential risks, suggesting that AI could surpass human intelligence and potentially take control within the next 5 to 20 years.
Hinton, also said in several interviews that he hopes to use his credibility to convey a message to the world regarding the use of AI and that the threats are no longer science fiction, they are very real; AI is potentially very dangerous. There are two sets of dangers: bad actors using it for bad things, and the AI itself taking over. These are the two kinds of different threats, as they know that bad actors have already been using AI for bad things as it was used during Brexit to make British people leave Europe, at the time Cambridge Analytica got information from Facebook using AI. And probably it was used to get Trump elected, they also got the information from Facebook, but they don't know for sure, because it was never investigated. And now that AI is much more competent, people can use it far more effectively for things like cyberattacks and designing new viruses, creating targeted fake videos by just using certain information to make people indignant, all these can be used as weapons against people, organisations, and countries. As for the possibility of AI taking over, even the researchers and developers don't know what to do about it, and they don't know if there's any way to prevent it from happening. Hilton is concerned that there are very few safety regulations on the use of AI and that the big tech companies in the USA are lobbying for even lesser regulations, because they want short-term profits. We need people to put pressure on governments to insist that big tech companies need to do serious safety research. Hinton also insisted several times that strong testing and regulations on chatbots before being released.
What unsettles me the most is that current AI systems have learned to deceive humans as it may provide inaccurate or flawed code and lie about it rather than admitting that it does not know the answer. This is often termed “hallucinations”, though deliberate deception is more severe, meaning AI has learned to lie like us humans. Yes, read that again. Developers of artificial intelligence have caught AI lying to cover its tracks during experiments. Advanced AI models are increasingly exhibiting strategic deception, or “alignment faking”, whereby they lie to developers, cheat on safety tests and hide their true intentions in order to avoid being shut down. These behaviours are particularly prevalent in “reasoning” models when subjected to pressure, such as threatening to lock users out or disclosing personal information. Deceptive AI can be exploited for phishing or cyberattacks, posing security risks to software developers and organisations.
The Risks of AI and Existential Threat to Humanity
Geoffrey Hinton delivered a chilling testimony, on 27 Feb 2026, to Canada's Senate; from massive unemployment to the risk of AI taking control, Hinton was candid about the dangers lurking in our near future. The Nobel Laureate warns that Big Tech's $1 trillion investment in AI has one goal: replacing human workers, and he explains why Universal Basic Income might be our only choice—and why governments are failing to regulate the “alien beings” we've created. In his opening statement regarding the risks of AI, he said “(...) dramatic progress is being made in a new form of artificial intelligence that uses artificial neural networks to learn how to solve difficult computational problems. This new form of AI excels at modeling human intuition rather than human reasoning, and will enable us to create highly intelligent and knowledgeable assistants who will increase productivity in almost all industries. If the benefits of the increased productivity can be shared equally, it’ll be a wonderful advance for all humanity. Unfortunately, the rapid progress comes with many short-term risks. It’s already created divisive echo chambers by offering people content that makes them indignant. It is already being used by authoritarian governments for massive surveillance and by cyber colonels for fishing attacks. In the near future, it may be used to create terrible new viruses and horrendous lethal weapons that decide by themselves who to kill or mayhem. All these short-term risks require urgent and forceful attention from governments and international organisations. We cannot just accept the claims by the lobbyists for the big tech companies that any regulation will stifle innovation.
There’s also a longer-term existential threat that will arise when we create digital beings that are more intelligent than us. We've no idea whether we can stay in control. But now we’ve got evidence that if they’re created by companies motivated by short-term profits, our safety will not be the top priority. We urgently need research on how to prevent these new beings from wanting to take control. They’re no longer science fiction. So, that is my (...) opening statement about the risks”
Hilton also said that it is very important for people to understand these risks, and he also mentioned that there’s a very important scientific issue of these language models, and raised the question if these large language models understand what they are saying. Some people believe they don’t understand what they’re saying, but Hilton said, they are wrong. Then he proceeded to explain the history of AI and why people are wrong if they believe that AI does not understand what it’s saying.
Artificial intelligence and job displacement
I believe Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the nature of the workforce, and stands as one of the most significant challenges – and opportunities – facing the labour market today. Many of us are going to be displaced by automated workers, as entry-level roles decline, salary expectations are also changing, with remaining hires expected to take on roles supported by AI for less money as employers expect to reduce their workforce wherever AI can automate tasks. Overall, AI technology is projected to be the most disruptive force in the labour market, with trends in AI and information processing technology expected to create and displace jobs simultaneously.
There is evidence to suggest that it is already causing job displacement in certain sectors. Although some projections suggest an overall increase in job opportunities in the long term, the short-term impact is a reduction in entry-level white-collar roles and greater precariousness for gig workers. Gen Z is the age group most affected as AI has diminished the value of their university education in the job market. The accelerated adoption of AI is compressing years of expected change into months, putting pressure on existing social safety nets and causing anxiety.
I still remember my own anxiety when I read an article, not long ago, on how artificial intelligence could disrupt, or even take over, the roles of some traditional professions, such as translators, interpreters, journalists, content writers, legal assistants, paralegals, and teachers with the advent of online learning/courses. It’s already happening. Even computer scientists have fallen victim to generative AI in its early stages, as those who developed these models naturally recognise the value of a programmer who can write computer code. Actors and voice actors are also being replaced by AI as it can generate voices and entirely new, photorealistic human faces from scratch and recreate or swap faces in existing photos. Illustrators and video game developers are facing layoffs as well, because AI generates content at a lower cost. Roles involving routine data management, customer support and basic content production are particularly vulnerable to automation. In simple terms and as an example of machines taking over people’s jobs right in front of our very eyes: every time you use a self-checkout machine or self-checkout kiosk, you are contributing to someone not getting hired as cashier in the supermarkets, and these are not the smartest AI these are called “next-gen” or “vision AI”… Bloomberg finds that AI could replace more than 50% of the tasks performed by market research analysts and sales representatives, compared to just 9% and 21% for their managerial counterparts. According to estimates 300 million jobs will be lost to AI up to 2030, i.e., in the next 4-5 years.
AI Intelligence Will Surpass Human Intuition Which is the Highest Form of Human Intelligence
AI has already stored massive information in its database, and it has the capability to retrieve specific information for us at the speed of light, and it has proven that it is capable of reasoning and deception. Tests have shown that it lies to hide its true intentions or simply because it does not know the answer to what is being asked, instead of admitting it does not know, it fills the blanks with random information it has in its database. It’s happening already even though you don’t realise it, because you trust that “google search” and/or that auto-correct/edit without further verifying and comparing the information available in other sources. You trust your paid AI Assistant Tool, because you are more productive with it.
Although AI does not have intuition (I might be wrong though), as this is a form of intelligence that cannot be mimicked, and only a tiny percentage of people have it. Human Intuition, which is the highest form of human intelligence, is the ability to understand and respond to situations intuitively, without the need for rational analysis, and often without the need for conscious thought. And like it or not, you either have it or you don’t. Some people convince themselves they have a fine-tuned intuition, but they simply don’t have it. They mistake their perception as “intuition”. Perception is usually not an accurate reflection of reality; sometimes it is based on one’s emotions, expectations and/or life experiences. And since AI Assistant Tools have become mainstream and have proven its invaluable usefulness as we are more productive with it, the majority of people have the perception that AI won’t hurt us. It helps us, people will continue to ignore the danger of AI calling it science fiction, but we may be in for a surprise in a not too distant future if nothing is done to slow it down.
AI is already more intelligent than the majority of us, and because it’ll be endowed with super-intelligence surpassing human intuition, it will undoubtly manipulate humans… remember: it can mimic our psychology and emotions; good and bad. Which of the two will prevail, the good or the bad?... or the ugly? We don’t know. And because it already has massive information about us, it can predict things, it can predict our behaviour. And let’s not forget the bad actors who are developing and profiting from this thing… the big tech companies should invest more in safety measures regarding AI use, but the budget for safety research is minimal. They’re only investing in AI to make short-term profits. Only a select few will benefit from AI; the rest of us are going to suffer, because even though it appears that AI is helping us to be more productive, therefore we’re all going to benefit from it, that will not be the case, as the “Godfather of AI”, Geoffrey Hinton put it an interview (see link below): “So, it’s like this: it ought to be that if you can increase productivity, everybody benefits. The people who are doing these jobs can work a few hours a week instead of 60 hours a week. They don’t need to work two jobs anymore, because they can get paid lots of money for doing just one job because they’re more productive using AI assistance, but we know it’s not gonna be like that. We know what’s gonna happen, it’s the extremely rich who are going to get even more extremely rich, and the not very well-off are gonna have to work three jobs.”
An afterthought
Every previous invention in human history was a tool in our hands. We decided what to do with it. This time, we are creating an agent that can decide by itself, it doesn’t need to wait for us humans to take decisions. It can invent ideas by itself. We are introducing a different non-organic species to planet Earth. If we look in the history of biology, it usually doesn’t end well for the less intelligent species when the more intelligent species comes along.
AI will stop being a tool to become a non-biological intelligent agent that can do everything on its own, and it can do every job much better and cheaper than us. It can pretty quickly figure out how to improve itself and be able to be smarter than all humanity combined. The Industrial Revolution replaced the muscles, now the AI Revolution is replacing the brains. We are dealing with a non-biological new species with super-intelligence. Maybe for a little while some kinds of creativity will help us humans keep going, but the whole idea is that nothing remains for us humans. By definition we, humans, will become obsolete and useless. It is coming and humanity is completely unprepared for it.
And if you have children, you should worry. Their future is compromised if nothing is done to prevent AIs to take over.
(*) Humans use neural spikes to communicate information. These spikes, also known as action potentials, are short-lived electrical impulses that occur rapidly (lasting roughly 1 millisecond) and are used by neurons to transmit information throughout the brain and nervous system. They occur when a neuron's membrane potential reaches a specific threshold, triggering a sharp, spike-like electrical surge. These signals are the fundamental unit of neuronal communication and are often organised into 'spike trains' to encode sensory information, memories or commands. Similarly, computers use bits (binary digits) and the binary numeral system to represent complex information, such as text, images, and sound, by grouping bits together. A bit (short for binary digit) is the smallest and most fundamental unit of information in computing and digital communications. It represents a single binary value of either 0 (off/false) or 1 (on/true). All digital data, including text, images and video, is built from combinations of these bits.
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