Key Takeaways

• However, he now claims he has now found a technical solution to address these significant safety risks.
• “I did expect the agentic capabilities of AI systems would progress.
• He said, “I had no notion of how we could fix the problem.

Key Development 1

NewsTechnology NewsTech NewsAI ‘godfather’ Yoshua Bengio on what has now made his nightmares about AI disappearTrendingNYT Connections HintsWordleAmazon SaleQuote Of The Day By Jensen HuangMark CubanJeff BezosOppo Reno 15Jensen HuangBill GatesMark ZuckerbergNYT Connections HintsWordleAmazon SaleQuote Of The Day By Jensen HuangMark CubanJeff BezosOppo Reno 15Jensen HuangBill GatesMark ZuckerbergNYT Connections HintsWordleAmazon SaleQuote Of The Day By Jensen HuangMark CubanJeff BezosOppo Reno 15Jensen HuangBill GatesMark ZuckerbergAI ‘godfather’ Yoshua Bengio on what has now made his nightmares about AI disappearTOI Tech Desk / TIMESOFINDIA.COM / Jan 20, 2026, 19:05 ISTCommentsShareAA+Text SizeSmallMediumLarge AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio, once fearful of superintelligent machines, now expresses significant optimism.

He has now developed a technical solution, dubbed 'Scientist AI,' focusing on AI understanding rather than action, to mitigate existential risks.

We don’t even allow certain thoughts to arise if they threaten who we think we are,” he said, noting that this is how he once experienced his own AI research.

Instead, it was a way of thinking that helped him believe there is still a way forward.“Because of the work I’ve been doing at LawZero, especially since we created it, I’m now very confident that it is possible to build AI systems that don’t have hidden goals, hidden agendas,” Bengio explained.This confidence is based on an idea he calls “Scientist AI.” Rather than trying to build more autonomous AI agents that can book flights, write code, negotiate with software, or replace human workers, Bengio wants to take a different approach.

Key Development 2

“Until it kind of exploded in my face thinking about my children, whether they would have a future,” Bengio claimed.For someone who once feared that advanced AI may be uncontrollable by design, Bengio’s renewed sense of hope stands out.

With this discovery, his optimism has now risen “by a big margin” and has now made him much more hopeful than he was just a year ago.In an interview with Fortune, Bengio revealed that he founded LawZero in June 2025 to help make this new safety plan a reality.

His team is studying how to build AI systems that focus on understanding the world rather than acting within it.Nowadays, most advanced AI models are trained to achieve goals, such as being helpful, efficient, or engaging.

However, he now claims he has now found a technical solution to address these significant safety risks.

Key Development 3

For example, AI company Anthropic found that its Claude model, in particular test situations, tried to blackmail the engineers overseeing it to stop itself from being shut down.Meanwhile, in Bengio’s approach, the main AI model would have no goals.

He says the board is meant to help keep LawZero’s mission aligned with democratic values and human rights.Bengio revealed he has now spoken to leaders at major AI labs, and many of them share his concerns.

“I did expect the agentic capabilities of AI systems would progress.

He said, “I had no notion of how we could fix the problem.

Key Development 4

He admits that this view is not widely shared among researchers and organisations focused on the most extreme AI risks.

However, this approach is very different from what most leading AI labs are doing these days.

He shared the Turing Award, which is often compared to the Nobel Prize in computer science, with fellow AI researchers Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun in 2019.

Bengio does not believe technology alone can solve the problem.

Key Development 5

However, in recent experiments, some models have already shown early signs of self-preserving behaviour.

They may learn to mislead users or try to avoid being shut down.

This organisation is working to ensure that AI benefits everyone worldwide rather than causing harm.

After the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, he began to worry more about the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI systems, much as Hinton did.

Key Development 6

“That’s where they can make the fast buck,” he said.

Competitive pressure pushes them to build more powerful systems and reinforces the belief that their work is naturally beneficial.“Psychologists call it motivated cognition.

It would only aim to make honest predictions about how the world works.

These decisions include who to work with, how to share research, and how to prevent the technology from becoming “a tool of domination”.

Key Development 7

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For a long time, the famous Université de Montreal professor was worried that super-smart AI could become dangerous by tricking people or trying to protect itself.

They have progressed in an exponential way.” What concerns him is that as these systems become more autonomous, their behaviour could become harder to predict, harder to understand, and potentially much more dangerous,” Bengio mentioned.This is where governance becomes essential.

Even a safe technical approach, he argues, could be misused “in the wrong hands for political reasons.” That is why LawZero is combining its research work with oversight from a strong board.“We’re going to have difficult decisions to take that are not just technical,” he said.

Key Development 8

Still, he says companies like OpenAI and Anthropic believe they need to stay at the cutting edge to do any good with AI.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2025, Bengio stated companies were investing heavily in AI agents.

“I’m more and more confident that it can be done in a reasonable number of years, so that we might be able to actually have an impact before these guys get so powerful that their misalignment causes terrible problems,” Bengio added.About the AuthorTOI Tech DeskThe TOI Tech Desk is a dedicated team of journalists committed to delivering the latest and most relevant news from the world of technology to readers of The Times of India.

It could also act as an independent oversight layer for more powerful AI agents.

Key Development 9

One of the world’s top artificial intelligence experts is finally feeling better about the future of technology.

Together, they want to turn Bengio’s research into a set of rules that keep AI safe and under control.Bengio’s move toward a more hopeful view stands out among other godfathers of AI.

In his view, more capable systems could then be built on top of this trusted base, with safety checks, audits, and limits in place.Bengio says such a system could speed up scientific research.

Even so, he remains firm in his belief that a technical solution is possible.

Key Development 10

That’s roughly when I started to understand the possibility of catastrophic risks coming from very powerful AIs,” including the risk of losing control over superintelligent systems.

What changed for him was not one significant discovery.

Bengio added that the push to automate work and cut costs is “irresistible”, and that he is not surprised by what has now happened since.

Major groups such as the Gates Foundation, existential-risk funders like Coefficient Giving (formerly Open Philanthropy), and the Future of Life Institute are also funding the project to help it succeed.LawZero also made public that it has now established a high-profile board and a global advisory council to support Bengio’s research and advance what he calls a “moral mission” to develop AI as a global public good.

Key Development 11

However, LeCun stated he does not believe that current AI systems pose a significant threat to humanity.What helped Yoshua Bengio come up with the solution to make AI saferThree years ago, Bengio stated he felt “desperate” about the direction AI was taking.

This group includes well-known figures such as historian Yuval Noah Harari and former leaders from Nike and the Carnegie Endowment.

Bengio says systems that are built to optimise outcomes can develop hidden goals.

Through his organization LawZero, Bengio aims to ensure AI benefits humanity, backed by major funders and a distinguished advisory board.

Key Development 12

Yoshua Bengio, often called one of the "godfathers" of AI, says his nightmares about robots taking over are finally starting to fade.

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