'Godfather of AI' wins Nobel Prize for work he fears threatens humanity

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the so-called'Godfathers of AI' has won a Nobel Prize for pioneering the very same technology he fears could result in the "end of people." Hinton and fellow AI researcher John J. Hopfield were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for their crucial early work on artificial neural networks, which have since formed the foundation for powerful AI models developed by Google, OpenAI, and others. The pair's work, which draws on inspiration from the human brain's architecture, paved the way for advancements in machine learning used in everything from fraud detection to driverless vehicles. In Hinton's view, the tech he helped pioneer may also pose a profound risk to human safety. Hopfield and Hinton are credited with advancing the study of neural networks in the 1970s and '80s during a time when it was still unclear that the field would mature into the behemoth it is today.