Reinforcement Learning Pioneers Win Turing Award, Reflect on AI's Progress and Risks
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Turing Award honors AI's reinforcement learning duo
Why it matters: Reinforcement learning, as the technique is known, posits that computers can learn from their own experiences, using a system of rewards similar to how researchers have trained animals. In a joint interview, Barto and Sutton said the award is extremely rewarding, especially given
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Pioneers behind reinforcement learning win Turing Award
OpenAI's ChatGPT employs a technique called reinforcement learning from human feedback, a practical application of the awardees' work. Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton have received one of the highest honours in computing for developing the foundations of reinforcement learning (RL) - one of the
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Latest Turing Award winners again warn of AI dangers
University of Massachusetts researcher Andrew Barto and former DeepMind research scientist Richard Sutton warned that AI companies are not thoroughly testing products before releasing them, likening the development to "building a bridge and testing it by having people use it," according to The
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AI pioneers who channeled 'hedonistic' machines win computer science's top prize
Teaching machines in the way that animal trainers mold the behavior of dogs or horses has been an important method for developing artificial intelligence and one that was recognized Wednesday with the top computer science award Teaching machines in the way that animal trainers mold the behavior of
[5]
AI pioneers who channeled 'hedonistic' machines win computer science's top prize
Teaching machines in the way that animal trainers mold the behavior of dogs or horses has been an important method for developing artificial intelligence and one that was recognized Wednesday with the top computer science award. Two pioneers in the field of reinforcement learning, Andrew Barto and
[6]
AI pioneers win the Turing Award, tech's top prize
Teaching machines in the way that animal trainers mold the behavior of dogs or horses has been an important method for developing artificial intelligence and one that was recognized Wednesday with the top computer science award. Two pioneers in the field of reinforcement learning, Andrew Barto and
[7]
Technique Behind ChatGPT's AI Wins Computing's Top Prize -- But Its Creators Are Worried - Decrypt
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton, who received computing's highest honor this week for their foundational work on reinforcement learning, didn't waste any time using their new platform to sound alarms about unsafe AI development practices in the industry. The pair were announced as recipients of
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Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton win Turing award for AI training trick
The Turing award, often considered the Nobel prize of computing, has gone to two computer scientists for their work on reinforcement learning, a key technique in training artificial intelligence models Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton have won the 2024 Turing award, which is often called the Nobel
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Pioneers of Reinforcement Learning Win the Turing Award
In the 1980s, Andrew Barto and Rich Sutton were considered eccentric devotees to an elegant but ultimately doomed idea -- having machines learn, as humans and animals do, from experience. Decades on, with the technique they pioneered now increasingly critical to modern artificial intelligence and
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Turing Award winners warn over unsafe deployment of AI models
Cristina Criddle in San Francisco and Melissa Heikkilä in London Two pioneers of reinforcement learning, a scientific technique that has been fundamental to the artificial intelligence boom, have warned against the unsafe deployment of AI models after winning this year's Turing Award. Andrew
[11]
AI pioneers who channeled 'hedonistic' machines win computer science's top prize
Teaching machines in the way that animal trainers mold the behavior of dogs or horses has been an important method for developing artificial intelligence and one that was recognized Wednesday with the top computer science award. Two pioneers in the field of reinforcement learning, Andrew Barto and
[12]
AI pioneers scoop Turing Award for reinforcement learning work | TechCrunch
Two trailblazing computer scientists have won the 2024 Turing Award for their work in reinforcement learning, a discipline in which machines learn through a reward-based trial-and-error approach that lets them adapt within constrained or dynamic environments. Andrew G. Barto, a professor emeritus
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Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton Win the Turing Award for Reinforcement Learning
Their 1998 textbook Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction remains a standard reference, cited over 75,000 times. ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, has awarded the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award to Andrew G. Barto and Richard S. Sutton for their contributions to reinforcement learning.
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AI scholars win Turing Prize for technique that made possible AlphaGo's chess triumph
Some of the flashiest achievements in artificial intelligence in the past decade have come from a technique by which the computer acts randomly from a set of choices and is rewarded or punished for each correct or wrong move. It's the technique most famously employed in AlphaZero, Google
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A.I. Pioneers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton Win the Turing Award
The annual award is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing." This year's Turing Award, an honor often dubbed the "Nobel Prize of Computing," goes to two A.I. researchers who laid the foundations for tech breakthroughs like OpenAI's GPT. Andrew Barto, a researcher at the University of
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Reinforcement learning pioneers harshly criticize the "unsafe" state of AI development
Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. Who are they? Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto are pioneers of reinforcement learning, a machine learning technique modern AI models utilize. Sutton is often referred to as the "father of
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Two AI Pioneers Win Turing Award for Key Technique Used in ChatGPT | PYMNTS.com
Two professors who pioneered a key technique that became central to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT have won the Turing Award, which is considered the Nobel Prize of computing. Andrew Barto, professor emeritus of information and computer sciences at the
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Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton, pioneers of reinforcement learning in AI, have been awarded the prestigious Turing Award. Their groundbreaking work has significantly influenced modern AI development, including technologies like ChatGPT and AlphaGo.
Reinforcement Learning Pioneers Honored with Turing Award
Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton, pioneers in the field of reinforcement learning, have been awarded the 2024 A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize of Computing"
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. The award, which carries a $1 million prize sponsored by Google, recognizes their foundational work in developing reinforcement learning, a key technique in modern artificial intelligence3
.The Foundations of Reinforcement Learning
Barto and Sutton began their collaboration in the late 1970s at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where Barto was Sutton's PhD advisor
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. Their work focused on creating "hedonistic" machines that could learn from experience through a system of rewards, similar to how animals are trained4
. This approach, known as reinforcement learning, allows AI systems to make optimized decisions through trial and error3
.In the early 1980s, they published a landmark paper demonstrating their new approach by balancing a pole on a moving cart in a simulated environment
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. Their 1988 textbook, "Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction," remains a standard reference in the field with over 75,000 citations2
.Impact on Modern AI
Reinforcement learning has been crucial to many recent AI breakthroughs:
- It was used to develop AlphaGo, the program that defeated world champions in the game of Go
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. - It plays a role in improving popular AI tools like ChatGPT
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. - It has applications in chip design, internet advertising, and global supply chain optimization
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Google's senior VP Jeff Dean described reinforcement learning as "a lynchpin of progress in AI over the last several decades" and "a central pillar of the AI boom"
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.From Obscurity to Recognition
Both Barto and Sutton acknowledged that for much of their careers, their work was not in vogue. "We were kind of in the wilderness," Barto said in an interview
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. The award represents a significant recognition of their contributions to the field of AI.Related Stories
Perspectives on AI Risks and Future
While both scientists have made significant contributions to AI, they differ in their views on potential risks:
- Sutton has dismissed what he describes as overblown concerns about AI's threat to humanity
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. - Barto, however, cautioned that "You have to be cognizant of potential unexpected consequences"
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Sutton embraces a future with potentially superintelligent AI, stating, "We're trying to understand ourselves and, of course, to make things that can work even better. Maybe to become such things"
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.Ongoing Relevance and Future Applications
The reinforcement learning techniques developed by Barto and Sutton continue to be relevant in AI research and development. Their work has attracted numerous young researchers and driven billions of dollars in investments
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. As AI technology continues to advance, the principles of reinforcement learning are likely to play a crucial role in shaping the future of intelligent systems.References
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