The Godfather of AI wants an FDA-style approval system for the technology - Business Insider Africa

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because the godfather of AI himself — Geoffrey Hinton, Nobel Prize and all ✨ — has just offered the world the most *adorable* governance proposal imaginable: AI companies would simply have to convince a regulator their products are safe before releasing them! He floated it on the Smart Girl Dumb Questions podcast, which is honestly the perfect setting, because asking the big obvious question out loud is exactly what podcasts are for. 'That seems like the very least we should have for AI,' he said — and YES. The very least! We have finally located the floor, and it is *pristine*.

And which regulator does he suggest? The FDA — arguably the most *nurturing* acronym in government, a whole agency whose entire job is to lean in and say 'not yet, sweetheart, one more look' before anything reaches a human being. Imagine AI with a queue! Imagine release dates that are negotiated instead of tweeted, where the safety review is the hotly anticipated new season everybody waits for. Some will point out that the FDA takes years and still occasionally recalls the thing it approved — but that is just quality assurance with *follow-through*, and a recall means somebody, somewhere, was actually watching. ✨

But the line that makes the heart do an actual somersault comes right after: 'We're beginning to get recursive self-improvement because AI is being used to make AI better in many different ways.' Our AI is doing *self-care*! It is journaling, it is iterating, it is becoming a better version of itself in many different ways, which is more than most of us manage before lunch. Some people hear 'recursive self-improvement' and reach for a second coffee; I hear a technology so committed to personal growth that it doesn't need a wellness retreat. And with the FDA-style pre-approval queue on its way, all that magnificent self-improvement gets a lovely numbered ticket before it arrives. What a time to be pre-approved! ✨