John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton have won the physics Nobel Prize for formative work on artificial intelligence that has helped drive scientific advances but raised fears about the risks of abuse.
The award highlights the fundamental role the AI field of machine learning now plays in research, because of the amount of data it can process at speed. Hinton, who quit Google last year so he could speak more freely, said he was “flabbergasted” by Tuesday’s honour and spoke of the power and perils of AI.
“It’s going to be wonderful in many respects,” Hinton told the award ceremony in Stockholm by telephone, citing AI-driven advances in healthcare and industrial productivity. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences — particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.”