A US scientist who won the 2024 Nobel physics prize for his pioneering work on artificial intelligence said Tuesday he found recent advances in the technology “very unnerving” and warned of possible catastrophe if it isn’t kept in check.
John Hopfield, a professor emeritus at Princeton, joined co-winner Geoffrey Hinton in calling for a deeper understanding of the inner workings of deep-learning systems to prevent them from spiraling out of control.
Addressing a gathering at the New Jersey university via video link from Britain, the 91-year-old said that over the course of his life he had watched the rise of two powerful but potentially hazardous technologies — biological engineering and nuclear physics.
“One is is accustomed to having technologies which are not singularly only good or only bad, but have capabilities in both directions,” he said.
“And as a physicist, I’m very unnerved by something which has no control, something …