Two men who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics are pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), and one of them is often referred to as its “godfather.”
According to ReutersAmerican physicist John Hopfield and AI expert Geoffrey Hinton received the prestigious prize this week. Known as the “Godfather of AI,” Hinton made groundbreaking contributions in 2012 that helped shape modern neural networks. However, in 2023 he left his role at Google to join others in warning about the dangers of AI.
In an interview with the New York Times last year, Hinton explained that he once believed Google was a “good steward” of AI. That view changed when Microsoft partnered with OpenAI to release GPT-4, the language model behind ChatGPT.
Although Hinton didn’t think AI had reached its peak at the time, the 76-year-old recognized the significant shift brought about by the collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI, reports futurism.com.
“Most people thought it was still far away. I thought it was a long way off,” Hinton said. “I thought it would take another 30 to 50 years, or even longer.”
Before parting ways with Google and joining figures like Elon Musk in signing a letter calling for a pause in AI development, Hinton warned on CBS News that the world had reached a “pivotal moment” with AI.
“I think it’s very reasonable for people to be concerned about these issues now,” he told CBS at the time, “even if that won’t happen again for at least another year or two.”
Hinton, now a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, has consistently expressed concern that AI could soon become uncontrollable — and if it does, chaos could ensue.
“Here we are dealing with something where we have much less idea what is going to happen and what we can do about it,” he said during a call to the Nobel Committee. “I wish I had a simple recipe: If you do this, everything will be fine. But I don’t do that.”
Hinton admitted he was surprised to win the Nobel Prize and didn’t even know he had been nominated. “Hopefully it makes me more credible,” he said of winning the Nobel Prize, “if I say that these things really understand what they’re saying.”
