October 8, 2024: We are covering the roots of empathy, a reexamination of the Milgram Shock Experiment and the Nobel Prize in physics. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Artificial Neural Networks Win Nobel | Two scientists whose research in developing artificial neural networks laid the foundations for many advances in artificial intelligence have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics, it was announced today in Stockholm, Sweden. Such networks "represent neurons with nodes that possess different values. These nodes form networks of connections, akin to the brain's natural neural synapses, which can be made stronger or weaker through training" on data sets, writes Scientific American editor Lee Billings, who covered the announcement. The 2024 laureates in physics are U.S. scientist John Hopfield, of Princeton University, and British-Canadian scientist Geoffrey Hinton, of the University of Toronto.
Why it matters: Hinton, who has worked for decades to advance AI, now is a leading advocate for stronger protections against unintended consequences of AI.
What the experts say: AI "is going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it's like to have things smarter than us, and it's going to be wonderful in many respects…. But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control," Hinton says.
From the Scientific American archive:
| | | Forums, school programs and other events designed to educate people to better understand others' perspectives are cropping up in the U.S. in an attempt to bridge a growing empathy divide, writes Elizabeth Svoboda, author of What Makes a Hero? The Surprising Science of Selflessness. Between 1979 and 2009, people reported less agreement with statements that described feeling empathy with friends, according to research by psychologist Sara Konrath. Such findings have inspired studies of the factors that spark people to put in the extra effort that empathy requires. And neuroscientists are looking into the origins of empathy, "a complex, challenging operation for the brain," as Svoboda puts it, in our minds.
What the experts say: "Once you get used to hearing other people and knowing what different opinions are, then you can get to work on other things," the story quotes a community member who attended an online "empathy cafe" as saying.
Why this matters: Empathy can knit people together across racial, ethnic, gender, economic and political identities, laying a foundation for cooperative, caring communities that thrive, Svoboda writes. Higher empathy also can lead to an improved sense of individual well-being, which is important in a time of high rates of loneliness and resentment in the U.S. | | | Two comb jellies merge to form one creature whose formerly separate nervous systems react in sync to stimuli.Mariana Rodriguez-Santiago (CC BY-SA) | | | • With authoritarianism rising worldwide, psychology and philosophy researchers Laura Niemi, Edouard Machery and John M. Doris set out to re-examine the conclusions of the literally and figuratively shocking results observed by Stanley Milgram in his "obedience to authority" experiments. Milgram's "work and conclusions still stand," they write, as do subsequent similar studies of people's willingness to cave to authority figures ordering them to commit potentially harmful acts. Fortunately, other variations on the experiment suggest that people are less sadistic in the absence of an authority figure. | 5 min read | | | In light of "Nobels week," Scientific American senior graphics editor Jen Christiansen worked with our multimedia team to make a TikTok version of her infographics-rich story about how Nobel Prizes are shared. View the short video here. And on the subject of TikToks, some viewers are impressed with the Halloween-themed humor and quality of the City of Boise's first posting to TikTok. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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