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Hinton has an incredible press agent, from articles like these you would think only his and a few other minds are actually working on AI. Nothing against Hinton

Hinton has an incredible press agent, from articles like these you would think only his and a few other minds are actually working on AI. Nothing against Hinton, just wish others in the AI field got as much press, there are alot of incredible things happening in AI the past few years. NYTimes is positively in love with him, are a few other articles - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/technology/artificial-intelligence-research-toronto.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/technology/artificial-int... ... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/magazine/the-great-ai-awakening.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/14/magazine/the-great-ai-awa...

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hooloovoo_zoo 6y ago
Maybe, but what to make of the towels? The story implies he doesn't know humidifiers exist.
- kortilla 6y ago
  It’s a hotel. Humidifiers aren’t a common amenity and he took a train there.
  - hooloovoo_zoo 6y ago
    OTOH, CVS is a block away.
vlovich123 6y ago
$44 million + the many more millions he makes annually hires a good agent. Also I’m sure it’s not unlikely that Google is using their PR contacts to pick the writer that does the profile can yield some favorable coverage.
Bukhmanizer 6y ago
Hinton has such a good story that I think it’s was clear from the outset that he was going to be the “face” of AI. He was on one of the first backprop papers, worked pretty consistently on neural nets though the AI winter, and was pretty instrumental in the renaissance. Was he the only person working on this stuff? No, but I think we as a society like to tell ourselves a story about science and scientists. The narrative of the “lone scientist” wiling away their days in solitude until reaching a breakthrough probably hasn’t actually existed since the 19th century. Pretty much all significant discoveries nowadays are the product of intense collaboration and iterative progress. Science is a team sport, just one where 99% of the team happens to be invisible.
vl 6y ago
Also notice how skillfully names of his students are not mentioned - no PR for the unworthy. Of course they are easily discoverable from the published papers.
rirarobo 6y ago
The lone hero/savior/prodigy archetype is also just an easy narrative to sell, especially to anyone aspiring towards success who would feel inspired or vicariously validated by such a story. There are countless articles that romanticize entrepreneurs who were child chess champions, or rubik's cube solving geniuses, who dropped out of college, or were academics who were under-acknowledged, only to build it all by themselves and hit the jackpot. At least that's how the story often goes. It almost seems like a sort of modern mythology, one that taps into the American dream that so many yearn for.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

hooloovoo_zoo 6y ago

Maybe, but what to make of the towels? The story implies he doesn't know humidifiers exist.

kortilla 6y ago
It’s a hotel. Humidifiers aren’t a common amenity and he took a train there.
- hooloovoo_zoo 6y ago
  OTOH, CVS is a block away.

vlovich123 6y ago

$44 million + the many more millions he makes annually hires a good agent. Also I’m sure it’s not unlikely that Google is using their PR contacts to pick the writer that does the profile can yield some favorable coverage.

Bukhmanizer 6y ago

Hinton has such a good story that I think it’s was clear from the outset that he was going to be the “face” of AI. He was on one of the first backprop papers, worked pretty consistently on neural nets though the AI winter, and was pretty instrumental in the renaissance. Was he the only person working on this stuff? No, but I think we as a society like to tell ourselves a story about science and scientists. The narrative of the “lone scientist” wiling away their days in solitude until reaching a breakthrough probably hasn’t actually existed since the 19th century. Pretty much all significant discoveries nowadays are the product of intense collaboration and iterative progress. Science is a team sport, just one where 99% of the team happens to be invisible.

vl 6y ago

Also notice how skillfully names of his students are not mentioned - no PR for the unworthy. Of course they are easily discoverable from the published papers.

rirarobo 6y ago

The lone hero/savior/prodigy archetype is also just an easy narrative to sell, especially to anyone aspiring towards success who would feel inspired or vicariously validated by such a story. There are countless articles that romanticize entrepreneurs who were child chess champions, or rubik's cube solving geniuses, who dropped out of college, or were academics who were under-acknowledged, only to build it all by themselves and hit the jackpot. At least that's how the story often goes. It almost seems like a sort of modern mythology, one that taps into the American dream that so many yearn for.