ACM, the Affiliation for Computing Equipment, has awarded the 2024 ACM A.M. Turing Award to Andrew G. Barto and Richard S. Sutton for his or her contributions to reinforcement studying. Their work laid the conceptual and algorithmic foundations of the sphere, influencing trendy synthetic intelligence.
Barto, Professor Emeritus on the College of Massachusetts Amherst, and Sutton, Professor on the College of Alberta and Analysis Scientist at Eager Applied sciences, have been recognised for analysis spanning many years. The Turing Award, usually known as the “Nobel Prize in Computing,” features a $1 million prize funded by Google.
“Barto and Sutton’s work demonstrates the immense potential of making use of a multidisciplinary strategy to longstanding challenges in our subject,” mentioned ACM President Yannis Ioannidis. “Their contributions proceed to form AI and supply perception into how the mind works.”
Reinforcement studying (RL) focuses on coaching clever methods via reward-based mechanisms. The strategy, impressed by psychology and neuroscience, builds on Markov resolution processes, the place brokers be taught optimum methods via trial and error. Within the Eighties, Barto and Sutton formalised RL as a normal drawback framework and launched key algorithms, together with temporal distinction studying and policy-gradient strategies.
Their 1998 textbook Reinforcement Studying: An Introduction stays a regular reference, cited over 75,000 occasions. Their concepts influenced the mixing of RL with deep studying, resulting in developments equivalent to AlphaGo’s victories over human Go gamers and reinforcement studying from human suggestions (RLHF) utilized in ChatGPT.
“In a 1947 lecture, Alan Turing acknowledged, ‘What we would like is a machine that may be taught from expertise,’” mentioned Jeff Dean, senior vice chairman at Google. “Reinforcement studying, as pioneered by Barto and Sutton, straight solutions Turing’s problem.”
RL has been utilized in areas equivalent to robotics, community congestion management, chip design, and international provide chain optimisation. Analysis additionally suggests RL fashions align with findings on dopamine system features in neuroscience.
Barto and Sutton’s contributions proceed to impression AI, with functions increasing throughout industries. Their recognition with the Turing Award highlights the lasting significance of reinforcement studying in computing and past.
This recognition follows a rising acknowledgment of AI’s position in advancing scientific discovery.
Final 12 months, Demis Hassabis, CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind, and John M. Jumper have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his or her contributions to protein construction prediction via the AI system AlphaFold, alongside David Baker, a professor on the College of Washington.
Geoffrey Hinton, often known as the ‘Godfather of AI,’ was additionally awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics alongside John Hopfield for growing the Boltzmann machine, a neural community mannequin impressed by statistical physics.
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