The Godfather of AI warns that cuts to universities will cost the US its AI edge over China (www.businessinsider.com)

Geoffrey Hinton, often called the "Godfather of AI," warned on Jon Stewart’s show that the U.S. risks losing its lead over China in AI if federal support for basic research and research universities is undermined. Hinton said the current edge is "not by nearly as much as it thought" and that attacks on university funding amount to "eating the seed corn"—short-term political pressure that would damage the long-term pipeline of foundational discoveries (he noted that the deep learning revolution grew from years of modest, sustained basic research). He also suggested international leadership on safe AI development may come from Europe and China if U.S. support continues to wane, adding a timeline that the U.S. won’t lead for "another three and a half years." The warning is significant because modern AI—especially deep learning—depends on decades of incremental, low-cost basic science and university-led research that trains talent, produces open science, and seeds industry advances. The comments come amid the Biden/Trump-era Education Department pressures on top universities (Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, UCLA and others) over campus policies and threats to federal research funding; MIT recently rejected an offer tying preferential funding to policy pledges. If sustained grants and academic freedom are weakened, Hinton argues, the U.S. could cede both technological leadership and influence over safe AI norms and governance.