Geoffrey E. Hinton, often referred to as the “godfather of artificial intelligence,” faced a surprising moment when he received the news that he was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. At 76 years old, he was staying in a budget hotel in California, which happened to have spotty internet and phone service at the time.
When asked about his reaction to the Nobel announcement, Hinton expressed genuine surprise. During the official press conference conducted via phone, he humorously admitted, “I had an MRI scheduled for today, and I guess I’ll have to cancel that.”
Hinton shares this prestigious accolade with John J. Hopfield from Princeton University, recognizing their groundbreaking contributions that propelled machine learning through artificial neural networks. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences made this announcement on October 8, 2023.
Born in December 1947 in Wimbledon, southwest London, Hinton exhibited an early flair for cross-disciplinary thought. He explored a range of subjects, including natural sciences, art history, philosophy, and experimental psychology, while attending Clifton College and King’s College, Cambridge. In 1978, he earned his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and has since held positions at various universities in both the UK and the US. He is also the founder of the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London.
In 1987, Hinton joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Computer Science, where he has spent the past 37 years. Currently, he holds the title of emeritus professor and serves as the chief scientific advisor at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Toronto, one of Canada’s premier research institutions. His research delves into how neural networks empower machines to learn, remember, perceive, and manipulate symbols.
Interestingly, Hinton’s personal website at the University of Toronto is minimalistic, featuring a simple layout with a few lines of text and links. He has also stated that he no longer takes on students, postdocs, or visiting scholars.
His contributions to artificial neural networks earned him fellowship in the Royal Society in 1998, and in 2001, he became the inaugural recipient of the Rumelhart Prize in cognitive science. He was later elected as a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2016.
Before this Nobel recognition, a significant milestone in Hinton’s career occurred in 2018 when he, alongside Yoshua Bengio from Montreal and Yann LeCun from New York University, was awarded the Turing Award—often considered the “Nobel Prize of Computing”—for their groundbreaking work in deep learning.
In 2013, Hinton joined Google after the tech giant acquired the deep neural network startup he co-founded. However, in May 2023, he made the decision to leave the company. After his departure, Hinton voiced his increasing concerns about the potential dangers associated with AI, even admitting to feelings of regret about his contributions. He was quoted by The New York Times saying, “It’s hard to see how to stop bad people from using it (AI) to do bad things.”
Meric Gertler, the President of the University of Toronto, expressed great pride in Hinton’s historic achievements, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commended him for placing Canada at the forefront of AI technology.
During the Nobel press conference, Hinton reiterated his apprehensions regarding the implications of AI development. As a regular user of ChatGPT, he believes the impact of AI could parallel that of the Industrial Revolution, yet it will primarily enhance capabilities in intellectual rather than physical realms. While he acknowledged the significant productivity boosts that AI brings to various fields, he cautioned against potential adverse effects, expressing hope that “things don’t spin out of control.”
“I would still do the same research under the same circumstances,” Hinton reflected, “but I worry that this might lead to systems that are smarter than us ultimately controlling everything.”
