Geoffrey Hinton, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, at his home in Toronto on April 24, 2023.CHLOE ELLINGSON/The New York Times News Service
Recent Nobel Prize winner and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton said that he has donated half of his share of the monetary award to Water First, a Canadian charity that partners with Indigenous communities to address drinking water challenges.
“I’ve been to a lot of lectures where they start off by saying who they stole the land from. They didn’t quite say it like that, but the people who used to live there,” Dr. Hinton said on Monday of the $350,000 donation. “It’s great that they’re recognizing that, but it doesn’t stop the Indigenous kids getting diarrhea.”
Dr. Hinton spoke at a press event Monday night in Toronto after a lecture on artificial intelligence presented by the Global Risk Institute. The emeritus professor from the University of Toronto was named a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics earlier this month alongside John Hopfield, a physicist who previously taught at Princeton University.
The Nobel committee recognized both men for their contributions to the field of AI research. Dr. Hinton, 76, is a pioneer in the development of neural networks, a concept that takes inspiration from the way that neurons behave in the brain. His work helps form the bedrock for today’s wave of generative AI applications.
The prize amount for the Nobel is 11-million Swedish kronor, about $1.4-million, shared equally between the two recipients. Dr. Hinton previously said he planned to donate the money to various charities, including one that assists neurodiverse young adults with employment.
Water First provides education and training in Indigenous communities, helping to certify treatment plant operators to provide clean drinking water locally. The non-government organization, which is based in Creemore, Ont., and founded in 2009, also designs training programs related to long-term water and fish resource management.
“We deeply appreciate his gift in support of water education and training programs in Indigenous communities in Canada,” said John Millar, executive director and founder of Water First.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to end long-term boil-water advisories on First Nations reserves within five years when first elected in 2015. There were 105 such advisories when he took office. Today, there are 32 advisories, according to Indigenous Services Canada.
On Monday, Dr. Hinton played host to a lecture delivered by Jacob Steinhardt, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley who spoke about the challenges posed by powerful AI systems. While AI can benefit society, particularly in areas such as health care, the technology can also be used to spread misinformation, create deepfakes and breach cybersecurity defenses.
Dr. Hinton, who has become much more concerned and vocal about AI risks in the past two years, has highlighted longer term concerns, including that society could lose control of powerful systems that are smarter than humans in the future.
Dr. Steinhardt described himself as a “worried optimist” when it comes to our ability to manage the risks of AI.
Dr. Hinton, in contrast, said he counts himself as a “worried pessimist.”
“There’s research showing that if you ask people to estimate risks, normal, healthy people way underestimate the risks of really bad things,” he said. “The people who get the risks about right are the mildly depressed … I think of myself as one of those.”