Professor LeCun: The Man Shaping the Future of Global Artificial Intelligence
Báo Dân trí•08/12/2024
(Dan Tri) - LeCun envisions the emergence of AI as the prelude to a new renaissance, the catalyst of a quantum leap for humanity, currently constrained by its own intellectual limitations.
With his pioneering research on convolutional neural networks for computer vision, his work won the main prize of VinFuture 2024. "The reason I'm interested in AI is because today machines can learn, although not as well as humans or animals, but we are making expected progress towards this goal. I think AI will develop further, become more intelligent in these decades, we will make a lot of progress because there is still a lot of science and technology to help us achieve this," Professor LeCun shared after receiving the VinFuture 2024 prize. According to Professor LeCun, AI helps us expand human intelligence, in the near future AI will appear daily in technological devices. Born in Paris, France, Professor LeCun’s journey in artificial intelligence began in the late 1980s with his early work on neural networks – which laid the foundation for some of the most important advances in AI. In particular, his development of the game-changing convolutional neural network (CNN), which allows machines to process visual data in a way that mimics the human brain. Professor LeCun’s influence, however, is not limited to his technical contributions, as Director of AI Research at Meta; he is a “General” at the forefront of integrating AI into social media experiences. How did Professor LeCun establish himself as one of the greatest pioneers in artificial intelligence and deep learning on a global scale? According to him, AI has the potential to amplify human intelligence in the same way that machines have amplified our physical strength. It is an opportunity to increase our creativity tenfold and surpass the limits of human potential.
Machine Learning Pioneer
Since childhood, Professor Yann LeCun has been fascinated by the mystery of human and animal intelligence, supported by his engineer father. Thanks to the "challenges" of his father, this young prodigy obtained a DEA (Master's) and a PhD at the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University (Sorbonne) in the field of machine learning for artificial intelligence (AI). For his thesis, he proposed a variation of the gradient backpropagation algorithm, which has allowed neural networks to learn since the early 1980s. The decisive turning point in his career took place in February 1985, at a conference in Les Houches, in the heart of the Alps. The meeting brought together leading figures in international research in the field of neural networks. Professor LeCun shared with Dan Tri newspaper reporters during VinFuture Science and Technology Week (Photo: Trung Nam). It was in this context that Professor Yann had the opportunity to meet Larry Jackel, director of the Adaptive Systems Laboratory at Bell Labs, and Geoffrey Hinton, a distinguished professor at the University of Toronto (Canada), who accompanied him in this great research project. After a short time working at the University of Toronto in 1987, Professor Yann Le Cun joined Bell Labs (the world's greatest industrial laboratory ), a period that marked a turning point in his career. Convolutional networks - a joint invention of Professors Hinton, Bengio and Le Cun - together with the gradient backpropagation algorithm, formed the basis for today's revolutionary technologies such as ChatGPT. However, the limited computing power at that time made their implementation difficult, leading to widespread skepticism. Faced with these challenges, Yann Le Cun continued his intellectual journey, first at NEC, then as a member of New York University (USA). Over dinner in Mark Zuckerberg's private dining room, the Facebook founder convinced Yann LeCun to take on the role of AI researcher at the company. In December 2013, he agreed to join Facebook to launch and direct Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) in New York, and in 2015, in Paris, he focused on AI research in image and video recognition. Professor Yann LeCun shared: "One of the biggest applications of AI today is social media censorship, but people don't see it." 2019 was a successful year for the French prodigy with the release of the book "Quand la machine apprend: la révolution des neurones artificiels et de l'apprentissage profond" about the revolution of artificial neurons and deep learning. In the book, Yann LeCun envisions a future where AI redefines the boundaries of technology, becoming a partner in our quest for knowledge and innovation. He is optimistic about the future of AI, emphasizing the importance of adapting and continuing to educate in the face of technological change. “Artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of technology, promising a future where machines are not just tools but also partners in our quest for knowledge and innovation,” the professor said. According to him, AI continues to shape our future, while ensuring that its development remains relevant to the needs and values of humanity. It also emphasizes the urgency of continuing to educate for the ongoing transformation. “Technology creates new jobs and eliminates others. The issue is first and foremost how we adapt, we need to master our career trajectory and never stop learning today.” LeCun encourages us not to fear artificial intelligence, but instead to see it as a way to amplify human intelligence. Professor LeCun wears glasses integrated with artificial intelligence, he took a photo from these glasses while giving a speech at the VinFuture Awards 2024 (Photo: Manh Quan). He envisions the emergence of artificial intelligence as the prelude to a new renaissance, a potential catalyst for a quantum leap forward for humanity, currently constrained by its own intellectual limitations. "Many people think that there are only two ways to look at AI: it will be an assistive technology or a replacement technology. I think this 'binary' view is completely wrong because technology is fundamental. We need to develop smarter machines whether it is used to assist or replace," the professor expressed.
Potential for artificial intelligence development in Vietnam
Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Professor Yann LeCun assessed that Vietnam has many favorable factors to develop artificial intelligence in many fields: "Artificial intelligence is like a new material that promotes all industries, for example in the field of electric cars, medicine helps doctors diagnose and cure more diseases. Vietnam's advantage is that it is a country with a young population, Vietnamese people are also very intelligent, creative and hard-working, so artificial intelligence has the potential to develop very quickly". He predicted that artificial intelligence will play a big role in the development of fields such as education; science; research; startups in Vietnam. From there, it will make an important contribution to economic development. With great contributions to the advancement of AI by Professor LeCun, he received the prestigious Turing Award - considered the "Nobel of computing" and the main prize VinFuture 2024.
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