The Nobel Committee has announced the Nobel Prize for Physics for the year 2024. This award has been given to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their “fundamental discoveries”. These discoveries enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. The Nobel Committee said in its statement, “Although computers cannot think, machines can now imitate tasks such as memory and learning. “This year’s laureates in physics have helped make this possible.” Of these, Geoffrey Hinton is called the godfather of AI. Let us know about this scientist, who resigned from Google to tell the world about the dangers of AI.
Who is Hinton?,
Geoffrey Everest Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, best known for his work on artificial neural networks. Because of this he has received the title of “Godfather of AI”. He received the Nobel Prize for inventing a method that can automatically discover properties in data, thereby identifying specific elements in images.
in AI PhD
Hinton was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and King’s College, Cambridge, England. After repeatedly switching his degree between different subjects such as natural sciences, art history and philosophy, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in experimental psychology in 1970. He was awarded a PhD in Artificial Intelligence (AI) from the University of Edinburgh in 1978.
The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2024 has been given for the work done for neural networks. (Photo courtesy X.com)
Britain to America
Following his PhD, Hinton worked at the University of Sussex and, after difficulty obtaining funding in the UK, at the University of California, San Diego and Carnegie Mellon University. He was the founding director of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London.
Work in Google and announcement of resignation from there
From 2013 to 2023, Hinton spent his time working for Google and the University of Toronto. In May 2023, he publicly announced his resignation from Google. While resigning, he expressed concern about the risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. He co-founded the Vector Institute in Toronto and became its chief scientific advisor. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto.
Geoffrey Everest Hinton has been warning about the dangers of AI for some time. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Have won the Nobel Prize for Computing
Hinton received the 2018 Turing Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of computing,” together with Yoshua Bengio and Yann Lacan for their work on deep learning. He is sometimes called the “Godfather of Deep Learning”. After receiving the Nobel Prize, Hinton said that he was “surprised” to receive the award.
Impact of AI on society
When asked by journalists about the potential significance of the technology developed from his research, he said that AI would have a “huge impact” on our societies. “It will be the equivalent of the Industrial Revolution,” he said in a phone interview after the announcement. But instead of surpassing people in physical strength, it is going to surpass people in intellectual ability. “We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us,”
Prediction and warning
Hinton predicted that this technology would revolutionize things like health care, leading to “huge improvements in productivity.” “But we also have to worry about a number of potential bad outcomes, particularly the risk of these things getting out of control,” he warned. He also warned that AI “knows how to program, so it will find ways to avoid the restrictions we put in place.” It will find ways to motivate people to do things on its own.”
Also read: Explainer: Who is Victor Ambrose, who won the Nobel in Medicine and was interested in the moon and stars since childhood?
While being a pioneer in AI, Hinton also urges caution about the technology. In May 2023, he left his role at Google after concerns about how smart it was becoming. And “had become famous as a whistleblower.”
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FIRST PUBLISHED: October 8, 2024, 18:16 IST