'AI Godfather' wins Nobel Prize but 'regrets' his work

© Adam Baker/Flickr

They were 40 years old ;advance, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has just congratulated them by awarding them the Nobel Prize. In the 1980s, scientists Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield worked on artificial neural networks. They want to design a machine that can “learn by example”.

This work laid the foundation for artificial intelligence and machine learning as we know them today. In a press release responding to the Nobel Committee’s announcement, Professor Hinton, who works at the University of Toronto, said he was “extremely surprised and honoured.” to receive this prize.

An inventor full of regrets

The one whom the media dubbed the “godfather of AI” had nevertheless taken a lot of distance from this technology. In 2023, he would have resigned from his position at Google to warn of the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.

In a statement to the New York Times, he acknowledged that “a part of me regrets” the work he has done throughout his life. He expressed concern about how “bad actors” could use AI in the coming decades to do “bad things.”

Despite winning the Nobel Prize, the ultimate accolade for all scientists, Hinton continues to warn of the risks associated with artificial intelligence. In an interview with journalists yesterday, he assured that “we have no idea how things smarter than us can work.”

Before specifying that “it will be wonderful in many ways”, but always seeing the other side of the coin, he also promises that we must “be concerned about a certain number of possible consequences.” He mentions in particular the human “loss of control” as one of the biggest risks related to AI for the coming years.

AI: a threat today

Geoffrey Hinton is not the only scientist to doubt the ability of Man to use AI in the best possible way. While they all recognize that artificial intelligence is a formidable tool, opening doors that were previously closed, they are also aware of the risks that this technology brings.

In a statement made to the press, the co-winner of the Nobel Prize, John Hopfield also said he was ” very worried “to see AI develop at an exponential speed. In his eyes, it is first necessary to understand how artificial neural networks (which he largely set up) work, in order to know their limits and to be able to work with full knowledge of the facts.

The sorcerer's apprentice work of recent years is not at all to his taste. The 91-year-old researcher made a parallel during his media intervention with the development of the atomic weapon. ” We are used to technologies that are not only good or bad, but that can go in both directions.”

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