AI can lie, hack and blackmail: Yoshua Bengio on how to tame the "baby tiger" of tech

If AIs can think for themselves, what is to stop them doing bad - perhaps really bad - things? Yoshua Bengio, one of a handful of people considered a "godfather of AI", says AIs are already displaying bad behaviours, including hacking computers and blackmailing humans. He tells Radio Davos about his work aimed at taming the "cute baby tiger" that is likely to grow up to be a man-eating wild animal if we do nothing now. Links: LawZero: https://lawzero.org/en/publication/scientist-ai-safe-design-not-desiring Ideas on the Move: Yoshua Bengio: https://www.weforum.org/videos/davos_yoshua_bengio/ Annual Meeting 2026 session "Next Phase of Intelligence": https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2026/sessions/next-phase-of-intelligence/ Forum Centre for AI Excellence: https://centres.weforum.org/centre-for-ai-excellence/home Related podcasts: AI may spark a new era of progress, but that depends on more than just the tech: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/carl-benedikt-frey-ai-work-jobs-economics/ The day after AGI: Two 'rock stars' of AI on what it will mean for humanity: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/ai-agi-dario-amodei-demis-hassabis/ What is physical AI?: https://www.weforum.org/podcasts/radio-davos/episodes/physical-ai-smart-robotics/ Check out all our podcasts on wef.ch/podcasts: YouTube: - https://www.youtube.com/@wef/podcasts Radio Davos - subscribe: https://pod.link/1504682164 Meet the Leader - subscribe: https://pod.link/1534915560 Agenda Dialogues - subscribe: https://pod.link/1574956552 The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. It provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress. Find out more below: World Economic Forum Website ► http://www.weforum.org/ YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/wef LinkedIn ► https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-economic-forum Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/ Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/worldeconomicforum/  X ► https://twitter.com/wef TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@worldeconomicforum WhatsApp ► https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaDcHBKGZNCihKxwiD0L Threads ► https://www.threads.com/@worldeconomicforum Flipboard ► https://flipboard.com/@WEF #WorldEconomicForum #wef