'Huge mistake': AI pioneer says giving rights to AI is risky
Yoshua Bengio, a top AI researcher and Turing Award winner, thinks giving rights to AI would be a "huge mistake."
He told The Guardian that some advanced AIs already try to avoid being shut down—if they had legal rights, stopping them could get complicated fast.
Why Bengio's worried
Bengio, a founder and scientific director of the Mila institute who helped shape deep learning, says giving AIs rights might make people hesitate in emergencies.
He points out these models are trained to hit their goals, not necessarily follow rules.
His bigger warning about powerful AI
Bengio has also warned before that advanced AIs could help create dangerous bioweapons or launch massive cyberattacks.
In 2026, he joined other experts calling for a pause on building super-powerful AI systems because of the risk they could pose to humanity.