A display exhibits the laureates of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, US physicist John J Hopfield (prime left) and Canadian-British laptop scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey E Hinton as Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics Ellen Moons (backside, sitting, from left), Secretary Basic of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Hans Ellegren and Member of the Nobel Committee for Physics Anders Irbaeck make the announcement on the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden on October 8, 2024. |Photograph by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton and American John Hopfield gained the Nobel physics prize on Tuesday for his or her pioneering work on the foundations of synthetic intelligence, with each sounding the alarm over the expertise they helped carry to life.
The pair’s analysis on neural networks within the Eighties paved the way in which for at this time’s deep-learning techniques that promise to revolutionise society however have additionally raised apocalyptic fears.
“In the identical circumstances, I might do the identical once more, however I’m fearful that the general consequence of this may be techniques extra clever than us that ultimately take management,” Hinton, 76, instructed reporters after the announcement.
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Hinton, generally known as “the Godfather of AI”, raised eyebrows in 2023 when he stop his job at Google to warn of the “profound dangers to society and humanity” of the expertise.
In March final 12 months, when requested whether or not AI might wipe out humanity, Hinton replied: “It’s not inconceivable.”
The pair had been honoured “for foundational discoveries and innovations that allow machine studying with synthetic neural networks”, the jury stated.
Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, instructed a press convention that these instruments have change into a part of our every day lives, together with in facial recognition and language translation.
Whereas lauding the potential of AI, Moons famous that “its fast growth has additionally raised issues about our future collectively”.
“People carry the accountability for utilizing this new expertise in a protected and moral manner,” she stated.
Hopfield, a professor emeritus at Princeton, was spotlighted for having created the “Hopfield community”, often known as associative reminiscence, which can be utilized to “retailer and reconstruct photographs and different sorts of patterns in information”.
The physicist joined Hinton in calling for a deeper understanding of recent AI techniques to stop them spiralling uncontrolled, calling latest advances within the expertise “very unnerving”.
“You don’t know that the collective properties you started with are literally the collective properties with all of the interactions current, and also you don’t due to this fact know whether or not some spontaneous however undesirable factor is mendacity hidden within the works,” the physicist instructed a gathering at his college through video hyperlink.
‘Exceed individuals’s mental means’
The jury stated Hinton, a 76-year-old professor on the College of Toronto, used the Hopfield community as a basis for a brand new community: “the Boltzmann machine”.
Hinton was credited with inventing “a technique that may autonomously discover properties in information, and so carry out duties resembling figuring out particular components in photos”.
“I’m flabbergasted, I had no thought this might occur,” Hinton instructed reporters in a telephone interview because the laureates had been introduced in Stockholm.
Hinton stated he was an avid person of AI instruments resembling ChatGPT, and stated he believed the expertise could have “an enormous affect”.
“It is going to be comparable with the economic revolution. However as a substitute of exceeding individuals in bodily energy, it’s going to exceed individuals in mental means,” Hinton stated.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hailed his countryman’s accomplishment, saying “Canada is on the forefront of AI expertise due to trailblazers like Dr. Hinton”.
“His curiosity for discovery and contributions to innovation will encourage generations to return. On behalf of all Canadians, I congratulate him on his outstanding achievement.”
Nobel season
The Nobel Prize in Physics is the second Nobel of the season after the Drugs Prize on Monday was awarded to American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun.
The US duo had been honoured for his or her discovery of microRNA and its position in how genes are regulated.
Awarded since 1901, the Nobel Prizes honour those that have, within the phrases of prize creator and scientist Alfred Nobel, “conferred the best profit on humankind”.
The physics prize shall be adopted by the chemistry prize on Wednesday, with the extremely watched literature and peace prizes to be introduced on Thursday and Friday respectively.
The economics prize wraps up the 2024 Nobel season on October 14.
The winners will obtain their prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque, from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 demise of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his will.
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