Fringe Theory One of the world’s leading AI pioneers is warning not only that the increasingly powerful technology could harm the world, but that the people in charge of it may be equally dangerous. In an interview with CNBC, computer science luminary Yoshua Bengio said that members of an elite tech “fringe” want AI to replace humans. The head of the University of Montreal’s Institute for Learning Algorithms, Bengio was among the public signatories of the “Right to Warn” open letter penned by leading AI researchers at OpenAI who claim they’re being silenced about the technology’s dangers. Along with famed experts Yann LeCun and Geoffrey Hinton, he’s sometimes referred to as one of the “Godfathers of AI.” “Intelligence gives power. So who’s going to control that power?” the preeminent machine learning expert told the outlet during the One Young World Summit in Montreal. “There are people who might want to abuse that power, and there are people who might be happy to see humanity replaced by machines,” Bengio claimed. “I mean, it’s a fringe, but these people can have a lot of power, and they can do it unless we put the right guardrails right now.” Money Talks Because AI systems cost billions of dollars to build, the deep learning expert noted, the financial power aspect can’t be ignored. “Very few organizations and very few countries will be able to do it,” the University of Montreal AI lab leader said. “That’s already the case.” “There’s going to be a concentration of power:…Godfather of AI Warns of Powerful People Who Want Humans "Replaced by Machines"