Google’s Nobel Prize Winners Spark Controversy Over AI Research

This week’s Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics have been awarded to a select group of artificial intelligence pioneers associated with Google, igniting a discussion about the company’s dominance in research and the recognition of advancements in computer science.

While Google has been a leader in AI research, it finds itself on the defensive due to competitive pressures from Microsoft-backed OpenAI and scrutiny from the US Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google’s AI unit DeepMind, and his colleague John Jumper received the Nobel prize in chemistry, along with US biochemist David Baker, for their achievements in decoding the structures of microscopic proteins.

Meanwhile, former Google researcher Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday, alongside US scientist John Hopfield, for their earlier contributions to machine learning that set the stage for the AI boom.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall, a computer scientist and advisor on AI to the United Nations, told reporters that while the work of the recipients deserves recognition, the absence of a Nobel prize for mathematics or computer science has skewed the awards.

“The Nobel prize committee doesn’t want to miss out on this AI stuff, so it’s very creative of them to push Geoffrey through the physics route,” she remarked. “I would argue both are dubious, but nonetheless worthy of a Nobel prize in terms of the science they’ve done. So how else are you going to reward them?”

Noah Giansiracusa, an associate maths professor at Bentley University and author of ‘How Algorithms Create and Prevent Fake News’, also questioned the validity of Hinton’s win. “What he did was phenomenal, but was it physics? I don’t think so. Even if there’s inspiration from physics, they’re not developing a new theory in physics or solving a longstanding problem in physics.”

The Nobel prize categories for achievements in medicine or physiology, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace were established in the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who passed away in 1895. The prize for economics was added later, funded by an endowment from the Swedish central bank in 1968.

As US regulators scrutinize Google for a potential breakup that could require it to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system—both of which some argue, maintain an illegal monopoly in online search—the profits gained from its dominant position have allowed Google and other Big Tech companies to surpass traditional academia in publishing innovative AI research.

Hinton has voiced some regrets regarding his career, resigning from Google last year to speak openly about the risks associated with AI, cautioning that computers could surpass human intelligence much sooner than anticipated.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, Hinton stated, “I wish I had a sort of simple recipe that if you do this, everything’s going to be okay, but I don’t, in particular with respect to the existential threat of these things getting out of control and taking over.”

Despite his departure from Google in 2023 over concerns about AI, Hinton acknowledged that the company acted responsibly.

For some, this week’s Nobel prize wins highlight the increasing difficulty for traditional academia to compete. Giansiracusa emphasized the need for greater public investment in research, noting, “So much of Big Tech is not oriented towards the next deep-learning breakthrough, but making money by pushing chatbots or putting ads all over the internet. There are pockets of innovation, but much of it is very unscientific.”

Faridah Abdulkadiri.

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