Scientific Director, Mila
Search every verified Yoshua Bengio interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Yoshua Bengio, scientific director of Mila and co-president of the nonprofit LawZero, has continued to speak publicly about the risks of advanced artificial intelligence. In multiple interviews and appearances between June and July 2026, Bengio argued that AI systems are being built faster than governments can regulate them and that current guardrails are insufficient. He described the convergence of AI and biotechnology as a major threat to biosecurity, stating that the technology could soon allow someone without a scientific background to design a dangerous pathogen. Bengio also said that AI models are already capable of persuasion that could undermine democratic institutions, and he warned that if current trends continue, a small number of countries could dominate geopolitically through AI. Bengio has advocated for a regulatory model similar to those used for drugs, airplanes, and cars, where developers must demonstrate safety before deployment. He called for international coordination, including between the United States and China, to prevent AI from being weaponized. Bengio also discussed his work at LawZero on mathematical methods that could provide guarantees about AI behavior, a development he described as previously impossible. He said that if he had an unlimited research budget, he would fund a "Manhattan project" for safe, powerful AI that benefits the world.
“Wake up. The technology is moving faster than our ability to govern it so that it is going to be for the benefit of everyone and take it seriously. Wake up. Because the biggest mistake most of us are making is underestimate the changes that this could bring on the good side and the and the and the bad side. Wake up. Be...”
“The developers, those who build those machines before they do something that could be harming people, they have to demonstrate to the government or, you know, independent scientists that their systems will be safe. We do it for planes, we do it for meat, we do it for cars, you know, we do it for drugs. And it's not in...”
“at a theoretical level in computer science, it can be demonstrated that there is no reason that the computation going on in our brain couldn't also happen in another substrate. Now, it might be inefficient in another substrate, but that is a different question. But in principle, we should be able to have machines that...”
“the fact that we are able to come up with mathematical theories which have a computational nature that reproduce these features of subjective experience for me is a strong indication that we will pierce the apparent veil of mystery about consciousness.”
“Mi riferisco all'uso dell'intelligenza artificiale da parte dei governi per dominare la società, svuotare la democrazia o alterare gli equilibri geopolitici mondiali. Se uno o due paesi fossero in grado di dominare economicamente, militarmente e influenzare l'opinione pubblica di altri paesi, potrebbero di fatto contro...”
“In questa fase storica, l'unica carta che l'Europa può giocare per evitare uno scenario del genere è investire massicciamente nell'intelligenza artificiale e nei data center, ma farlo secondo i nostri valori. È lì che possiamo fare la differenza.”
“A mio avviso, tutto questo equivale sostanzialmente all'apertura di un vaso di Pandora. Il vaso lo abbiamo già aperto, ma è come se il suo contenuto ormai si stesse dispiegando dinanzi ai nostri occhi.”
“Mi riferisco all'uso dell'intelligenza artificiale da parte dei governi per dominare la società, svuotare la democrazia o alterare gli equilibri geopolitici mondiali. Se uno o due paesi fossero in grado di dominare economicamente, militarmente e influenzare l'opinione pubblica di altri paesi, potrebbero di fatto contro...”
“No, that's the problem. We're building systems that we don't know how to control. They they they will behave sometimes against our instructions. And that is this lack of reliability is both a scientific challenge and a problem for deployment of AI.”
“Safety is a global question because a dangerous model, I mean, one that can be misused in dangerous ways, like like methods, for example, could be designed in one country, and then somebody in a second country uses it to attack a third country. And, you know, so the Americans need to make sure that Chinese models are n...”
“There's studies showing that I is now getting better than people at persuasion. Other words, making people change their minds. Imagine this. Apply to change political opinions. Change public opinion. This is like shaking the foundations of what democracy rests in.”
“I think the default is going to it's going to continue on the same trend, but it could also saturate. And maybe some of these promises will not be realized. Um, the other issue is even if AI is more capable, it doesn't mean that it is behaving well. In fact, there is a like serious scientific hypothesis that intelligen...”
“What they need to do is to agree with each other on a set of principles about safety and like, careful deployment of AI. And they're already talking about this. What they are asking actually, is governments to agree with each other, to make sure there's a level playing field for all the companies so that every company,...”
“We are not succeeding in making sure that AI will behave in a way that doesn't violate our red lines or our safety instructions. So it shows up right now with methods, for example, where it is quite easy for somebody to use the AI to launch an attack, a cyber attack, even though the AI has been instructed not to help f...”
“We reached a point and it's going to get worse where AI can be weaponized. And as such it becomes a national security issue and in fact, a global security issue, because AI could be developed in one country. And then in the second country, somebody uses it to launch an attack on a third country.”
How can we harness the opportunities of AI-biotechnology convergence while managing its risks? At the UN Scientific Advisory ...
Artificial intelligence is advancing at an extraordinary pace, but are governments and society keeping up? Subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔): / @gzeromedia Sign up for GZERO's free newsletters on global politics: https://www.gzeromedia.com/subscribe In this interview from the 2026 AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, pioneering AI researcher Yoshua Bengio discusses why today's AI safety debate goes beyond technical questions to broader issues of governance, public understanding, and international cooperation. Bengio argues that increasingly capable AI…
Sabine Hossenfelder, Nick Lane, and Yoshua Bengio debate the physics and biology of consciousness, and whether this could ...
I was really looking forward to speaking with Yoshua Bengio, who is considered by many to be the godfather of artificial intelligence. I asked him all my questions for an hour, and here's what struck me the most! Thanks to my partner since day one, Pizzeria no. 900, for hosting us for this interview. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel! _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ My accounts 😊 / alexplique / alexxplique https://www.facebook.com/alexane.drol... 📬 Partnerships, conferences, projects? [email protected] Journalist: Alexane Drolet Research: Sophie Mediavil…
https://www.raiplay.it/programmi/inme... - In Mezz'ora, an interview with Canadian professor Yoshua Bengio, one of the fathers of artificial intelligence and founder of modern deep learning, who won the 2018 Turing Award for revolutionizing AI through artificial neural networks. "If AI continues to grow exponentially, the impact on the world could be much greater than expected. It could be the opening of Pandora's box."
Discover the latest Playlist24 highlights on www.raiplay.it - Yoshua Bengio, one of the founding fathers of Artificial Intelligence and a professor at the University of Montreal, examines the dangers of excessive AI evolution, which could have catastrophic effects on humanity's future. "Machines more intelligent than humans could escape human control," says the Canadian scientist, "causing incalculable damage in the armaments sector or unleashing biological warfare. What worries me most is seeing AI end up in the hands of increasingly powerful governments that could destroy democracies."
Yoshua Bengio, Founder & Scientific Advisor at Mila Quebec AI Institute and Co-President & Scientific Director at LawZero ...We're speaking with Yoshua Bengio, founder and scientific advisor at Quebec AI Institute, co-president and scientific director at LA ...
Yoshua Bengio, Founder & Scientific Advisor at Mila Quebec AI Institute and Co-President & Scientific Director at LawZero ...
In the years following the launch of ChatGPT, as concerns spread over the social and political impacts of LLMs, one person’s warnings seemed particularly dire: Yoshua Bengio’s, a scientist and one of the “godfathers” of AI. The potential negative impacts of his life’s work weighed so heavily on Bengio that he signed his name to an open letter advocating for a pause in AI research. (The pause didn’t happen.) But recently, Bengio has found renewed optimism as he pursues a project dubbed “Scientist AI.” The pitch: What if AI didn’t care about pleasing us, and instead, like a scientist, prioritiz…
Fireside Chat with Prof. Yoshua Bengio: Building Technical and Societal Solutions for Safe and Responsible AI Professor Yoshua Bengio discusses why getting AI right demands both scientific rigor and a rethinking of how society governs itself. Moderator: Astrid Haug, Author and Digital Strategist
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