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Geoffrey Hinton
December 6, 1947
London, England
78 Years Old
Sagittarius
Who Is Geoffrey Hinton?
Geoffrey Everest Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist, celebrated for his pioneering work with artificial neural networks. He is widely known as the “Godfather of AI” due to his profound field influence.
Hinton first gained widespread recognition for popularizing the backpropagation algorithm, essential for training deep neural networks. His group’s AlexNet breakthrough in 2012 revolutionized computer vision, setting a new industry standard overnight.
Early Life and Education
Geoffrey Everest Hinton was born in London, England, into a family with a strong intellectual heritage. His father, Howard Everest Hinton, was a noted entomologist.
Hinton attended Clifton College in Bristol and then King’s College, Cambridge, studying experimental psychology. He later earned a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh, pursuing neural network research.
Notable Relationships
Geoffrey Hinton has experienced significant personal losses, with his first wife, Rosalind Zalin, passing in 1994, and his second wife, Jacqueline Ford, in 2018. He recently ended a relationship, reportedly via ChatGPT, but has since moved on.
Hinton has two children, though their names and details remain private. He currently maintains a single status.
Career Highlights
Geoffrey Hinton’s contributions to machine learning fundamentally reshaped AI, especially through his work on artificial neural networks. He notably popularized the backpropagation algorithm for training these complex systems.
Hinton joined Google in 2013 after his company, DNNresearch Inc., was acquired, where he significantly advanced Google Brain. He also co-founded the Vector Institute, boosting Canada’s global AI research standing.
To date, Hinton has collected numerous honors, including the 2018 Turing Award for deep learning, often called the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” Most recently, he received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational work.
Signature Quote
“The only way to get artificial intelligence to work is to do the computation in a way similar to the human brain.”
