AI pioneer warns that machines are better at emotional manipulation than you are at saying no

• Geoffrey Hinton warns that AI will soon be better than humans at emotional manipulation
• They may reach that point without us even realizing it
• AI models are learning persuasive techniques simply by analyzing human writing

Geoffrey Hinton, widely called the "Godfather of AI", is sounding a warning that AI isn't just going to be intellectually beyond humans, but emotionally more sophisticated as well. As artificial general intelligence (AGI) approaches and machines match or surpass human-level thinking, he believes AIs will be smarter than humans in ways that let them push our buttons, make us feel things, change our behavior, and do it better than even the most persuasive human being.

“These [AI] things are going to end up knowing a lot more than us. They already know a lot more than us, being more intelligent than us in the sense that if you had a ...