“Father of AI” Geoffrey Hinton: VinFuture Prize is more flexible than the Nobel Prize

On December 10, 2024, Professor Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto, Canada) traveled to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize in Physics, four days after being honored with the VinFuture 2024 Main Prize. According to the scientist known as the “father of AI”, the VinFuture Prize is flexible and has unique categories to comprehensively and diversely honor innovations that help improve human life.

After four seasons of operation, the VinFuture Prize has affirmed its prestige in the international scientific community thanks to its outstanding vision and comprehensive evaluation criteria. To date, VinFuture has had many awardees honored at prestigious international awards, including 5 Nobel Prize winners (Prof. Drew Weissman and Dr. Katalin Karikó were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. Demis Hassabis and Dr. John Jumper were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and most recently, Prof. Geoffrey Hinton received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics).

Professor Geoffrey Hinton said the VinFuture Prize has an advantage over long-standing awards such as the Nobel Prize in its flexibility in selecting deserving scientists. Photo: VinFuture.

VinFuture has honored those who have truly made essential contributions to humanity.

- Can you tell us the moment when you learned you were one of the five winners of the most prestigious VinFuture 2024 award?

That day I was in the car and looking at my phone. Suddenly, I received a text message inviting me to call back Professor Richard Henry Friend, Chairman of the VinFuture Prize Council.

I was very surprised when I became the owner of the highest prize, worth up to 3 million USD. The number was much bigger than what I imagined. Even when I told my wife, she thought I was joking and I had to prove it by showing her the email (laughs).

- How do you feel about receiving the prestigious VinFuture Prize from a developing country?

My first reaction was: “Wow, they are really generous!” Before that, I had not had the opportunity to learn much about Vietnam or Vingroup. Therefore, I was very surprised that a Foundation founded by Vietnamese entrepreneurs could organize such a large-scale award. After learning more, I was extremely impressed with Vingroup’s rapid success and surprised by Vietnam’s rapid development.

- What do you think when the prize is simultaneously awarded to four other individuals, one of whom is not from the academic world?

I am very happy to see Mr. Jensen Huang and Prof. Fei-Fei Li being recognized as well. Computational power is one of the most important factors in developing neural networks, and NVIDIA's chips are really great. Not only the hardware but also the software makes it easier to use.

Meanwhile, Prof. Fei-Fei Li created a large database to test programs that can recognize objects in images. Both played a crucial role in the development of deep learning.

Professor Hinton received the Nobel Prize in Physics at a ceremony held on December 10, 2024. Earlier, in early October, he was announced as co-recipient of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. Photo: Globe and Mail.

- This is the first time an individual from the industry - specifically the CEO of NVIDIA - has been honored at an award in science and technology. What do you think?

I think it makes perfect sense to award this prize. People like Jensen Huang—whose contributions are through hardware at NVIDIA—or Jeff Dean at Google and Demis Hassabis at DeepMind—have all played important roles in the development of AI. And they all work in the industry.

I think it's nice that the award celebrates people who really make essential contributions to this development, regardless of where they work.

VinFuture Prize in line with innovation trends

- During your career, you have received many prestigious international awards, including this year's Nobel Prize. So how do you see the difference and unique mission of VinFuture?

I think the award to Mr. Jensen Huang is a clear demonstration that VinFuture is more flexible, not limited by the scope of the category like the Nobel Prize. Being a young prize can be an advantage that helps VinFuture easily adapt to the latest innovations and trends, and have a fresh approach. It is really commendable that VinFuture can take advantage of this strength to honor deserving scientists. At Nobel, it was difficult for the Councils to award Mr. Jensen Huang because up to now, they have not had a Nobel category specifically for this field.

VinFuture also impressed me because in addition to the Main Prize, there are also special prizes with different values ​​and meanings. I think that is a new and very good and useful idea. In particular, all of VinFuture's prizes have great value in terms of prize money.

Professor Hinton agrees with the VinFuture Prize Council's decision to award the prize to Mr. Jensen Huang for his important contributions to promoting the development of artificial intelligence. Photo: VinFuture.

- Do you think the VinFuture Prize can become a bridge between the world's leading scientists and developing countries, including Vietnam?

I totally agree! The VinFuture Prize will attract the attention of the world’s leading scientists to all aspects of Vietnam’s activities. As a result, collaborative links, such as that between Mr. Jensen Huang and Vietnam, have been established. I believe that this collaboration will have a significant impact and will certainly have a positive impact on the Vietnamese economy.

- After being “crowned” at VinFuture 2024 and then Nobel 2024, AI will certainly attract more attention. Many young researchers are inspired by the Professor’s work, but they also feel conflicted about the ethical issues that AI raises. In your opinion, where should we start to develop AI safely?

Last year, the number of phishing attacks increased by about 1,200%, as large language models can create convincing phishing emails. We need fundamental research now to ensure that we use AI safely.

My advice to young people is to focus on AI safety. I hope more of the brightest students will choose to study this issue, finding ways to make AI safer and addressing a wide range of threats, from long-term threats like AI takeovers to short-term threats like cybercrime.

Thank you, Professor!

Commenting on Prof. Geoffrey Hinton being awarded the 2024 VinFuture Principal Prize, along with Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Mr. Jensen Huang, Prof. Yann LeCun and Prof. Fei-Fei Li, Dr. Leah Cowen, Vice President for Research Strategy and Innovation at the University of Toronto said: “The VinFuture Prize is a testament to the power of research passion stemming from a thirst for discovery, and the importance of investing in outstanding research talent.”

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/cha-de-ai-geoffrey-hinton-giai-vinfuture-linh-hoat-hon-giai-nobel-208457.html