Page 19 - 04_May-2025

CityHealth
Business
Opinion
Cool Stuff
Civics
05.25
Cool Stuff
The Power
of Positive
Reinforcement
photo CHRIS ONCIUL
In 2018, we featured the University of Alberta’s,
world-renowned AI research group, led by research
scientist Richard Sutton, who left us with this
quote about the distinction between human and
“artificial” intelligence. For our own benefit, he said,
“There shouldn’t even be a distinction, it should
just be one topic: the science of mind, whether
artificial or natural. It will eventually all converge.”
When I show him this quote at a press conference
seven years later, he quietly admits, “That was
well said.”
We’re at the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute
(Amii), where Sutton is a fellow and chief scientific
adviser, and the press conference is to announce
Sutton (and long-time collaborator Andrew Barto)
Turing Award
winner Rich Sutton
believes the next
frontier of AI lies in
merging natural and
artificial minds
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