Nobel Prize-Winning AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton Warns Congress Has One Year to Control Rapidly Self-Improving AI

Geoffrey Hinton, the 2024 Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as the "Godfather of AI," told a closed-door gathering of Senate and House lawmakers on September 17, 2026, that Congress may have only one year left to implement meaningful safeguards on artificial intelligence before it escapes human control. Speaking to reporters after the briefing, organized by Senator Bernie Sanders at the U.S. Capitol, Hinton said: "Maybe a year, but not much more than a year. AI has now reached the point where AI is designing better AI. That's called recursive self-improvement. It is going to get out of control unless we do something."