Developers of AI Methods Win Nobel Prize in Physics
2024-10-09
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1Two early developers of artificial intelligence (AI) have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics.
2American John Hopfield is with Princeton University in New Jersey.
3Geoffrey Hinton is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto.
4The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored them for helping "to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning."
5The 76-year-old Hinton is known as the Godfather of artificial intelligence for his part in developing machine learning.
6However, he also has warned that AI has created threats to humanity.
7Ellen Moons is a member of the Nobel committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
8Moons said the two scientists "used fundamental concepts from statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that function as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets."
9Moons added that their research has been used to make progress in physics but has also become part of people's daily lives.
10Technologies like facial recognition and language translation are used every day.
11Hinton predicted that AI would have a "huge influence" on civilization and will bring improvements to productivity and health care.
12He told reporters and Royal Academy officials that, "It would be comparable to the Industrial Revolution."
13The Industrial Revolution was a period of intensive development of machines and manufacturing that started more than 250 years ago in Britain.
14Hinton said, "Instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it's going to exceed people in intellectual ability."
15But Hinton also expressed concern about the possible bad results of AI, especially noting, in his words, "the threat of these things getting out of control."
16The Nobel committee also recognized the possible damage the discoveries that it was honoring could cause.
17Moons said AI's "development has also raised concerns about our future.
18Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind."
19In the 1980s, Hinton helped to develop a method known as backpropagation, which is used to "train" computers to learn.
20Later, he headed a team at the University of Toronto that won the ImageNet computer competition in 2012 for designing a "neural network."
21Hinton and AI scientists Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun won the Turing Award in 2019. It is the top award in computer science.
22That year, Hinton told the Associated Press about the reaction he and his fellow researchers received over their work.
23"They thought we were very misguided and what we were doing was a very surprising thing for apparently intelligent people to waste their time on.
24My message to young researchers is, don't be put off if everyone tells you what you are doing is silly."
25Hopfield is now 91 years old. The Nobel committee said he "invented a network that uses a method for saving and recreating patterns."
26Hinton used Hopfield's network to create a new network using a different method known as the Boltzmann machine.
27The committee said this "machine" can learn to recognize elements in a particular kind of data.
28"What fascinates me most is still this question of how mind comes from machine," Hopfield said in a video posted online by The Franklin Institute after it awarded him a physics prize in 2019.
29The Nobel Prize in Physics is valued at $1 million.
30Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel created the prizes to honor discoveries that help humanity.
31The first prizes were awarded in 1901.
32On Wednesday, the prize in chemistry will be announced, on Thursday, the prize for literature, and Friday, the peace prize.
33And, the Nobel for economics will be announced on Monday.
34The winners receive their prizes in ceremonies held on December 10.
35I'm Ashley Thompson.
1Two early developers of artificial intelligence (AI) have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. 2American John Hopfield is with Princeton University in New Jersey. Geoffrey Hinton is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto. 3The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored them for helping "to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning." 4The 76-year-old Hinton is known as the Godfather of artificial intelligence for his part in developing machine learning. However, he also has warned that AI has created threats to humanity. 5Ellen Moons is a member of the Nobel committee at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Moons said the two scientists "used fundamental concepts from statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that function as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets." 6Moons added that their research has been used to make progress in physics but has also become part of people's daily lives. Technologies like facial recognition and language translation are used every day. 7Hinton predicted that AI would have a "huge influence" on civilization and will bring improvements to productivity and health care. He told reporters and Royal Academy officials that, "It would be comparable to the Industrial Revolution." 8The Industrial Revolution was a period of intensive development of machines and manufacturing that started more than 250 years ago in Britain. 9Hinton said, "Instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it's going to exceed people in intellectual ability." But Hinton also expressed concern about the possible bad results of AI, especially noting, in his words, "the threat of these things getting out of control." 10The Nobel committee also recognized the possible damage the discoveries that it was honoring could cause. Moons said AI's "development has also raised concerns about our future. Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way for the greatest benefit of humankind." 11What they did 12In the 1980s, Hinton helped to develop a method known as backpropagation, which is used to "train" computers to learn. 13Later, he headed a team at the University of Toronto that won the ImageNet computer competition in 2012 for designing a "neural network." 14Hinton and AI scientists Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun won the Turing Award in 2019. It is the top award in computer science. That year, Hinton told the Associated Press about the reaction he and his fellow researchers received over their work. 15"They thought we were very misguided and what we were doing was a very surprising thing for apparently intelligent people to waste their time on. My message to young researchers is, don't be put off if everyone tells you what you are doing is silly." 16Hopfield is now 91 years old. The Nobel committee said he "invented a network that uses a method for saving and recreating patterns." 17Hinton used Hopfield's network to create a new network using a different method known as the Boltzmann machine. The committee said this "machine" can learn to recognize elements in a particular kind of data. 18"What fascinates me most is still this question of how mind comes from machine," Hopfield said in a video posted online by The Franklin Institute after it awarded him a physics prize in 2019. 19The Nobel Prize in Physics is valued at $1 million. Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel created the prizes to honor discoveries that help humanity. The first prizes were awarded in 1901. 20On Wednesday, the prize in chemistry will be announced, on Thursday, the prize for literature, and Friday, the peace prize. And, the Nobel for economics will be announced on Monday. 21The winners receive their prizes in ceremonies held on December 10. 22I'm Ashley Thompson. 23Daniel Niemann and Mike Corder reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter, Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. 24________________________________________________ 25Words in This Story 26concept -n. a general idea 27statistical -adj. related to facts or information that is in the form of numbers 28associative -adj. of or relating to association, connection or linkage 29memory -n. the power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms 30neural -adj. like a brain or nerve cells 31function -n. the job or task that something does 32pattern -n. images, objects or elements that are repeated in a recognizable way 33translation -n. to take writing in one language and recreate its meaning in another language 34consequence -n. the results of an action 35We want to hear from you. 36Our comment policy is here.