He dedicated his life to the development and use of artificial intelligence and his innovative work has earned him the Nobel Prize.
But now Geoffrey Hinton, 76, regrets having built what earned him this success.
‘The Godfather of AI’ was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday alongside John Hopfield after they developed the methods that laid the foundation for powerful systems that run everything from ChatGPT to Apple Intelligence.
Dr Hinton, who was born in London, said he was “stunned” to have received the award, making him only the second person in history to win a Nobel Prize and the Turing Prize, often called the Nobel of computing.
After spending decades building the technological system that many consider as important as the introduction of the web browser in the early 1990s, Dr. Hinton has spent the last few years talking about the “existential risk” that AI poses to humanity .
Geoffrey Hinton (pictured) is often described as the “godfather of AI” for his work creating the first “generative” algorithms capable of learning from examples.
‘The godfather of AI’ received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday alongside John Hopfield after they developed the methods that laid the foundations for AI.
AI chatbots like ChatGPT use artificial neural networks to power their vast systems. Geoffry Hinton told reporters that he often uses ChatGPT in his daily work.
To discuss the dangers of this technology, Dr. Hinton resigned from his position at Google in 2022, after having worked at the company for ten years.
But the pioneering scientist says he still regrets introducing the technology to the world.
He told The Telegraph: “There’s the kind of feeling where you feel guilty because you do something you know you shouldn’t have done, and then there’s the regret when you do something that you would do again in the same circumstances but in the end can let it not be so.” succeed.
‘I have that second regret. Under the same circumstances, I would do the same thing again, but I’m worried that the overall consequence of this is that systems smarter than us will end up taking control.’
Having attended school at Clifton College in Bristol and then studying at the University of Cambridge, Hinton’s career as an academic began in 1972 as a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.
While in Scotland, he began lifelong work on an idea called a neural network: a mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data, which very few researchers believed in at the time.
Dr. Hinton’s work in the 1980s involved inventing a method that can autonomously find properties in data and identify specific elements in images.
Fellow award winner Dr. Hopfield of Princeton University invented the first methods that allowed machine learning systems to save and recreate patterns.
Dr. Hinton gave these networks the ability to find specific properties, allowing them to complete tasks such as recognizing items in images.
Their discoveries paved the way for artificial neural networks that power the artificial intelligence systems we see today.
To discuss the dangers of this technology, Dr. Hinton resigned from his position at Google in 2022, after having worked at the company for ten years.
Today’s AIs use a system called Artificial Neural Networks that would not be possible without the work of Dr. Hopfield and Dr. Hinton.
The Nobel Prize Committee for Physics awarded the two scientists the prize for their “fundamental discoveries” that led to the development of machine learning.
Most modern AIs are based on these artificial neural networks that mimic the connections between neurons in the brain.
In AI, neurons are represented by nodes that influence each other through connections that can be weakened or strengthened, allowing AIs to learn over time.
Without this technology, the powerful systems that run everything from ChatGPT to Apple Intelligence would not be possible.
During that decade, Dr. Hinton left his position as a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University because he was reluctant to receive funding from the US government’s Department of Defense, having deeply opposed the use of artificial intelligence on the battlefield. .
At the University of Toronto in 2012, Dr. Hinton and two of his students, Ilya Sutskever and Alex Krishevsky, built a neural network that could analyze thousands of photographs and learn to identify common objects, such as flowers, dogs and cars.
This system would earn the trio the coveted Turing Award and would cause Google to spend $44 million to acquire this network and use it to create its increasingly powerful technologies.
At this stage, Dr Hinton agreed with the use of AI in society and supported the construction of neural networks that learned from large amounts of digital text, stating that it was a powerful way for machines to understand and generate language. .
However, his views changed when Google and OpenAI built systems using much larger amounts of data that he claimed had the ability to eclipse human intelligence.
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for developing the methods that are the basis of today’s powerful AI.
The breakthroughs created by Dr. Hinton have created the foundation for the neural networks that power the most advanced modern AI (file photo)
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Dr Hinton said: “It’s going to be like the Industrial Revolution, but instead of our physical abilities, it will surpass our intellectual abilities.”
“But I worry that the overall consequences of this could be systems that are smarter than us and eventually take over.”
It’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to talking about AI with Dr. Hinton. He still believes the technology will lead to “huge improvements” in productivity and efficiency, as well as advances in areas ranging from drug research to education.
He also added that he was a fan of ChatGPT and said that he now uses it for many things in his daily life, but that it doesn’t always explain the facts well.
But the tech guru also worries that the Internet will be flooded with fake photos, videos and texts, leaving the average person “no longer able to know what’s true.”
“The idea that these things could become smarter than people… some people believed it,” he told the New York Times last year.
But most people thought it was too far away. And I thought it was too far away. I thought it was 30 to 50 years away or even more. Obviously I don’t think that anymore.
While he may feel regret for his work, the importance of Dr. Hinton and Dr. Hopefield’s findings that laid the foundation for some of the most important innovations in recent history cannot be underestimated.
As part of the prize, the couple will share a prize fund of 11 million Swedish krona (£810,000).
Dr. Hopfield, who at 91 is among the oldest Nobel Prize winners, has not yet commented on the award.