Geoffrey Hinton, the British-Canadian computer scientist whose machine learning discoveries have proved so profound he91裸聊视频檚 known as the 91裸聊视频榞odfather of AI,91裸聊视频� has won the Nobel Prize in physics.

The honour was bestowed Tuesday on Hinton, 76, and Princeton University researcher John Hopfield, 91, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It chose to award the pair because their use of physics had uncovered patterns in information that laid the foundation for machine learning and neural networks.

Machine learning is a form of computer science that relies on data and algorithms to help artificial intelligence mimic how humans learn, while neural networks are models that emulate the human brain by learning from data and detecting patterns. Both technologies underpin artificial intelligence, which provides the framework for devices and systems used across every industry around the world.

During a Stockholm news conference to announce the award, Hinton said he was 91裸聊视频渇labbergasted91裸聊视频� when the academy reached him by phone to announce his prize.

91裸聊视频淚 had no idea this would happen. I am very surprised,91裸聊视频� he said.

He later told an interviewer from the Nobel Prize that he had learned of his win around 2 a.m., while at a 91裸聊视频渃heap91裸聊视频� hotel in California, where he was due to receive an MRI on Tuesday.

91裸聊视频淚 guess I91裸聊视频檒l have to cancel that,91裸聊视频� he joked.

When the call came in from Stockholm, Hinton doubted it was even real.

91裸聊视频淢y very first thought was how could I be sure it wasn91裸聊视频檛 a spoof call?91裸聊视频� he said.

He was convinced of its authenticity when he realized it was coming from Sweden: 91裸聊视频淭he person had a strong Swedish accent and there were several of them.91裸聊视频�

His win will hand him half the share of the 11 million Swedish kronor (about C$1.45 million) from a bequest left by the award91裸聊视频檚 creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, but it will also further cement Hinton91裸聊视频檚 status as an AI pioneer.

While the technology has deeply fascinated the computer scientist for decades, he91裸聊视频檚 more recently developed concerns about AI because it has become even more advanced and accessible than he once imagined.

Since the November 2022 release of AI chatbot ChatGPT, everyone from students looking to cut corners on homework to tech giants wanting to boost profits have been racing to innovate with machine learning. Regulators have thus been left to figure out how to curtail some of the technology91裸聊视频檚 risks.

Despite AI91裸聊视频檚 recent explosion on the tech scene, Hinton has been researching the technology since the 1980s.

When co-laureate Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images in data, Hinton uncovered a way to find properties in data and identify specific elements in pictures, said the University of Toronto, where Hinton is a professor emeritus, Tuesday.

Hinton and his graduate students later built on the Boltzmann machine, which can classify images and generate new examples of patterns it was trained on, ushering in a modern take on machine leaning.

Their work has ultimately 91裸聊视频渂ecome part of our daily lives, for instance in facial recognition and language translation,91裸聊视频� Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said.

Much of Hinton91裸聊视频檚 work was completed at U of T91裸聊视频檚 computer science department, where he became a professor in 1987. He left about a decade later to found a computational neuroscience unit at University College London but returned in 2001.

In 2012, his team at the University of Toronto won the prestigious ImageNet computer vision competition by developing a technique that could identify images far better than competitors.

A year later, Google acquired DNNresearch, Hinton91裸聊视频檚 neural networks startup based on his U of T research.

In 2018, an even bigger honour came his way in the form of the A.M. Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize of computing, which he won with fellow Canadian Yoshua Bengio and American Yan LeCun.

After learning of the Nobel announcement, Bengio said he emailed his congratulations to Hinton, who he said responded 91裸聊视频渨armly.91裸聊视频�

Bengio was a grad student when Hopfield and Hinton made several of their breakthroughs in the eighties.

91裸聊视频淚t changed really the meaning of AI for me and it made me really excited about working on neural networks because it not only brought concepts from physics into AI, which is really cool, but it also brought a broader, maybe more important idea,91裸聊视频� Bengio recalled.

91裸聊视频淚n the same way that in physics, we are able to explain what is going on with a few simple mathematical equations, we could do the same to understand intelligence 91裸聊视频� and that was not at all a common view.91裸聊视频�

The pair later met when Bengio became a professor. Hinton exceeded his expectations.

91裸聊视频淗e91裸聊视频檚 the kind of person who has a new idea a day,91裸聊视频� Bengio said. 91裸聊视频淰ery creative, very insightful, but also a real scholar (because) he91裸聊视频檚 interested in everything.91裸聊视频�

Lately, much of Hinton91裸聊视频檚 interest lies in worries about the technology that has been his life91裸聊视频檚 work. He quit his role as vice-president and engineering fellow at Google last spring so he could speak more freely about the risks of AI.

The move made Hinton a hot commodity on the tech conference circuit, where he has told audiences in Toronto that he fears AI could trigger lethal autonomous weapons, discrimination, unemployment, misinformation and even the demise of humanity.

Despite urging the world to act quickly to prevent the worst scenarios it could cause, he hasn91裸聊视频檛 eschewed AI completely.

91裸聊视频淲henever I want to know the answer to anything, I just go and ask GPT4,91裸聊视频� Hinton said at the Nobel announcement, referring to the chatbot91裸聊视频檚 latest model.

91裸聊视频淚 don91裸聊视频檛 totally trust it, because it can hallucinate, but on almost everything, it91裸聊视频檚 a not very good expert.91裸聊视频�

Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, was one of the students Hinton won the ImageNet prize with.

Other proteges including Aidan Gomez and Nick Frosst have gone on to found Cohere, one of the country91裸聊视频檚 buzziest AI startups. Gomez called Hinton 91裸聊视频渁 real hero for our field and for Canada91裸聊视频� and Frosst said 91裸聊视频渉is passion for discovery and invention will always be an inspiration but his kindness, playfulness and mentorship have benefitted me most.91裸聊视频�

Hinton91裸聊视频檚 influence on burgeoning tech talent has largely come from his close ties to U of T but also his work as a chief scientific adviser at the Vector Institute in Toronto and his investment in Radical Ventures, a Toronto-based venture capital fund focused on AI.

In congratulating Hinton, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called him 91裸聊视频渢he teacher of generations of great Canadian intellectual leaders,91裸聊视频� while U of T president Meric Gertler said the school was 91裸聊视频渋mmensely proud of his historic accomplishment.91裸聊视频�

Tony Gaffney, Vector91裸聊视频檚 president and CEO, said Hinton91裸聊视频檚 91裸聊视频減ioneering research at the University of Toronto not only revolutionized the field of AI but has also been instrumental in establishing Canada as a global powerhouse in AI research and innovation.91裸聊视频�