I am scared that if you make the technology work better, you

The words of Geoffrey Hinton—“I am scared that if you make the technology work better, you help the NSA misuse it more. I'd be more worried about that than about autonomous killer robots.”—resound as both a confession and a warning. Here speaks one of the great architects of the age of artificial intelligence, voicing not triumph but concern. He points to the truth that the greatest danger of technology is not always the machines themselves, nor even their imagined rebellion, but the human institutions that wield them. For machines have no will apart from the will of those who command them, and when those in power bend them toward surveillance and control, the peril is more immediate than the distant vision of robot armies.

The origin of this insight lies in the history of power itself. Every tool humankind has forged—fire, iron, printing presses, electricity—has been double-edged. The printing press could spread wisdom, but also propaganda. The telegraph could connect nations, but also accelerate warfare. And so it is with artificial intelligence: it can heal, enlighten, and liberate, but it can also be twisted into chains of surveillance, binding entire peoples in invisible prisons of control. Hinton’s fear is not of the machine, but of the hand behind the machine, the human will corrupted by power.

Consider the real story of Edward Snowden, who revealed how the National Security Agency built vast systems of surveillance, monitoring not only enemies abroad but ordinary citizens at home. These systems did not rely on killer robots, nor weapons of destruction, but on information—harvested, stored, and used without consent. The technology itself was neutral, but in the hands of the state it became a shadowy tool of domination. This is the fear Hinton names: that as technology improves, so too does the reach of those who would misuse it.

It is easy to imagine futuristic horrors, armies of steel and code marching against humanity. Yet the subtler danger is already among us: the erosion of privacy, the manipulation of truth, the quiet watching eye that never blinks. These threats do not announce themselves with thunder and fire; they whisper, unnoticed, until freedom itself is hollowed out. The ancient tyrants required soldiers at every door; the modern tyrant needs only algorithms in the air. Hinton’s warning is thus prophetic: the danger lies not in machines that rise against us, but in men who rise above us, cloaked in the power of machines.

And yet, this truth does not call us to despair, but to vigilance. If technology is an expression of human will, then we must ensure that will is guided by justice and restraint. The challenge is not to stop innovation, but to shape it, to guard it, to set boundaries so that it serves the people rather than enslaves them. As the ancients placed laws upon kings, so too must we place laws upon machines and the powers that wield them. Without such boundaries, progress becomes peril; with them, it becomes a path to liberation.

The lesson, therefore, is that every generation must guard its freedoms with as much care as it embraces new inventions. We must ask not only, what can this machine do? but also, who controls it, and for what purpose? We must demand transparency, accountability, and the protection of human dignity in all the realms where technology touches life. To look only at the marvels of the invention, and not at its potential misuse, is to be dazzled into blindness.

In practice, this means supporting laws that protect privacy, questioning the unchecked growth of surveillance, and using technology with awareness rather than naivety. It means remembering that the truest danger is not an imaginary army of machines, but the very real temptation of power misapplied. If we heed Hinton’s words, we will learn that wisdom lies not in fearing the tool, but in guarding against the corruption of those who wield it.

So let his warning be carved into memory: fear not the robot of tomorrow, but the misuse of technology today. For the battle of this age is not against steel monsters, but against invisible chains forged by data and power. Guard your freedom, demand accountability, and never forget that the machine reflects its master. If the master is just, technology shall serve humanity; if the master is corrupt, it shall enslave it. The choice, as always, is ours.