Duo Wins Physics Nobel For 'foundational' AI Breakthroughs

Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs

Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI, and physicist John Hopfield won the Nobel physics prize on Tuesday for their pioneering work on the foundations of artificial intelligence

Stockholm, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Oct, 2024) Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI, and physicist John Hopfield won the Nobel physics prize on Tuesday for their pioneering work on the foundations of artificial intelligence.

The pair's research on neural networks in the 1980s paved the way for technology that promises to revolutionise society but has also raised apocalyptic fears.

"In the same circumstances, I would do the same again, but I am worried that the overall consequence of this might be systems more intelligent than us that eventually take control," British-Canadian Hinton, 76, told reporters via a phone interview after the announcement.

Hinton raised eyebrows in 2023 when he quit his job at Google to warn of the "profound risks to society and humanity" of the technology.

In March last year, when asked whether AI could wipe out humanity, Hinton replied: "It's not inconceivable".

The pair were honoured "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks," the jury said.

Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, told a press conference that these tools have become part of our daily lives, including in facial recognition and language translation.

While lauding the potential of AI, Moons noted that "its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future collectively."

"Humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way," she said.

Hopfield, a 91-year-old American professor at Princeton University, was spotlighted for having created the "Hopfield network," also known as associative memory, which can be used to "store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data."

Word of the award reached Hopfield "at a thatched cottage where he is staying in England," Princeton University said in a press release.

"My wife and I went out to get a flu shot and stopped to get a coffee on the way back home," Hopfield was quoted as saying.

Upon returning they were met by "a pile of emails" that he described as "astounding" and "heartwarming," according to the statement.