CAIP Congratulates AI Safety Advocate on Winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics

Washington, DC—Geoffrey Hinton, along with John Hopfield, won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discoveries and inventions, which laid the foundation for machine learning.

Hinton, long known as the "godfather of artificial intelligence," made headlines last year when he quit his job at Google to speak more openly about the dangers of the technology he helped create.

Hinton says now is the moment to run experiments to understand artificial intelligence (AI).

Hinton has called for governments, companies, and developers to:

• Run experiments to understand AI
• Pass laws to ensure AI is used ethically
• Create a registry of large AI systems
• Require companies to report when AI behaves dangerously
• Legally protect whistleblowers
• Have AI developers focus on understanding how AI might go wrong before it's more intelligent than humans

Hinton speaking to 60 Minutes on October 8, 2023:

• "It may be we look back and see this as a kind of turning point when humanity had to make the decision about whether to develop these things further and what to do to protect themselves if they did. I don't know. I think my main message is there's enormous uncertainty about what's gonna happen next. These things do understand. And because they understand, we need to think hard about what's going to happen next. And we just don't know."

"Geoffrey Hinton has been at the forefront of the relationship between humans and digital intelligence," said Jason Green-Lowe, executive director at the Center for AI Policy (CAIP). "Hinton has been sounding the alarm and telling anyone who will listen that we must worry about emerging AI technology."

Hinton long thought computer models weren't as powerful as the human brain. Now, he sees artificial intelligence as a relatively imminent "existential threat."

"Sadly, with Congress bogged down in election-year politicking, AI safety rules have taken a back seat, allowing unchecked innovation to be more important than public safety," added Green-Lowe. “Hinton's winning of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics should be a clarion call for elected officials to do the right thing and pass robust AI safety laws immediately."