There are periods of human history, in which the shift of human technological evolution suddenly takes a turn at a breakneck speed, without anticipation a new world appears before the species, and it decides to spear head on this new path.
From the invention of the flow of electricity to the introduction of the printing press, humanity has never failed to amaze itself in its creative endeavours.
Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield are two such researchers in the field of physics who mustered up such an invention in the 1980s, little did they know that their work will catapult humanity into another unknown which is the world of Artificial Intelligence.
The ‘godfather’ of AI, Hinton, started working on neural networks in 1980. He asked fundamental questions about the human brain; how did it store information? How could it recall memories? And how did it manufacture responses using the stored information?
In finding the answer to these questions, Hinton started to build models mimicking neuron cells in the brain. Hinton introduced the knowledge of probability and statistical analysis in duplicating the continuity of the human decision-making process.
Furthermore, the work of Hopfield built upon this research by not only working on semantic written language but also analysing mental image processing capabilities of a computer. Both of them were successful in identifying key patterns we humans use to store memory and recall the past.
It was as if they were building a new Frankenstein, but this time, it was more magnificent, capable of understanding, evolving and becoming to some extent, sentient.
The work they’ve put in cumulated in the technologies we see being introduced in the past ten years. Our phone’s facial recognition, social media algorithms, large language models such as GPT4, are all inventions built upon the works of Hinton and Hopfield.
The next century certainly belongs to these two as each and every field from medicine to astrophysics is adapting AI as a key tool in shaping and processing data at a scale no one could have imagined even 20 years ago.
The underpinning of their discovery also brings significant concerns. Whenever humanity leaped in its journey towards knowing the unknown, it did so often carelessly, leaving behind some regrettable instances whilst bringing forth magnificent glories as well.
The ‘godfather’ of AI is the one who is warning us about such pitfalls. His own work in the top scientific journal, Nature titled, “Deep Learning’ pointed out possibilities of AI getting more and more out of control.
He argued that the self-learning mechanism which the AI uses can teach itself without human intervention using larger amounts of data each day. Without certain checks and balances, dystopian movies are not so unfathomable.
Hinton had worked for Google for the last 10 years and famously quit the organisation citing reasons for Google’s unwavering commitment to advance AI technology at any cost.
The ‘godfather’ himself is the news bearer of a bad future. If humanity does not question itself regarding such a leap, it might not have the chance to do so in future.
AI has already proven to be effective in eliminating large numbers of repetitive human tasks and analytical processes. Which indicates that even STEM graduates of the future, who were famously the “safer” workforce, will be touted as redundant labour.
Although there are no qualms about the Nobel laureates in them deserving of such an honour, there are questions regarding why the field of Physics was chosen to recognize their achievement.
Prof. Dame Wendy Hall, a University of Southampton computer scientist and UN AI adviser, expressed surprise at the honour. “There is no Nobel prize for computer science, so this is an interesting way of creating one, but it does seem a bit of a stretch,” she said. “Clearly artificial neural networks are having a profound effect on physics research, but is it fair to say that in themselves they are the result of physics research?”
Even if there might be greater issues regarding academic advancement in the field of Physics and questions about a matter so distant from conventionality were chosen to be highlighted by the Nobel Committee, the impact AI has, cannot be overstated.
Humanity is at an impasse, certainly a new century full of new discoveries awaiting its future, yet its inventor himself questions if such a race is worth running if it comes at a significant cost of human wellbeing. If there is one thing for sure, progress is inevitable, whatever its costs.