BBC News Review AI评论家因AI获得诺贝尔奖

From BBC. Learning English. This is learning English from the news, our forecast about the news headlines.

In this program, AI Critic wins Nobel Prize for AI Hello.

I'm Georgie, and I'm Pepper. In this program, we look at one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well as a worksheet, on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

So let's hear more about this story.

The Nobel Prize in Physics, a famous science award, has been given to two scientists, jeffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, for their work on machine learning.

Machine learning is a kind of technology which is used by a lot of artificial intelligence software.

And so the scientists work is very important for a lot of modern technology.

But one of the winners of the award, geoffrey Hinton, now believes that AI technology could be dangerous in the future.

Let's have our 1st headline. This one's from the Evening Standard in the UK.

Godfather of Ai, who warned technology could end humanity, wins Nobel Prize.

OK, let's hear that again. Godfather of Ai, who warned technology could end humanity, wins Nobel Prize.

And that's from the Evening Standard in the UK.

This headline is talking about Jeffrey Hinton, who's won the Nobel Prize for his work, even though he now thinks it could be dangerous.

Now, the headline calls him the Godfather of ai.

Now, godfather, I have one of those.

Isn't it supposed to be your spiritual guide?

Yes, a godfather in some cultures is chosen by paren'ts when they have a baby.

But the headline isn't talking about this kind of godfather, and it isn't talking about the kind of godfather who leads a gang in the violent film, either.

OK, so Pepper, what does it mean?

Well, when we call someone the godfather of something, we mean that they started or developed a new idea or thing.

That's right. So we hear there's a lot in art and music.

So someone might be the godfather of soul, or the godfather of impressionist art, E.G.

Yes. So in the headline, jeffrey Hinton is called the Godfather of AI.

It just means people think his work was the start of AI and is really important.

Without him, AI might not exist at all.

We ve had godfather of someone who started or developed a new idea or thing.

OK? E.g. many people regard the director as the godfather of modern cinema.

This is learning English from the news, our progress about the news headlines.

Today, we're talking about a Nobel Prize winner who is now scared of the technology he worked on, as we've discussed.

Jeffrey Hinton, one of the winners of the Nobel Prize, is very famous for his work on AI.

Now, he said he was flabbergasted about the award.

That just means really shocked. He's often called the Godfather of AI because his work was essential for many people using AI to day, who believe it could change the world.

Okay, let's have another headline. This one is from The Mirror in the UK Brit Scientist Jeffrey Hinton dubbed The Godfather of AI wins Nobel Prize for physics.

That headline again from The Mirror in the UK Brit Scientist Jeffrey Hinton dubbed The Godfather of Ai.

Wins Nobel Prize for Physics. Now, we learned what the godfather of Ai means in the last headline.

But what about this word dubbed?

What does it mean to dubb someone something?

Well, dub is a very old English word, and it has kind of a royal meaning.

Think of kings and queens. It means to give someone an honor.

So if the king or queen dubbed someone a knight, that meant they held a ceremony and gave them a name, and sometimes bunny or land.

Okay? So has the king called the Nobel Prize winner the godfather of AI in a special ceremony, then no.

In the headline, dubbed is more metaphorical.

Here we use dubbed to mean given a particular name describing their achievements or personality.

OK, so Jeffrey Hinton has been dubbed The Godfather of AI.

He's been given that name by lots of people, exactly.

And there are a few common expressions we use with dubbed.

All of them are metaphorical, just like the Godfather of Ai, we often use royal titles.

Elvis is often dubbed The King of rock and Roll.

Madonna is sometimes dubbed the Queen of pot Yes.

And we also hear father, godfather like in the story, and godmother and mother too.

E.G. Florence Nightingale is dubbed the mother of modern nursing because of her work during the Crimean War.

We ve had dubbed given a name describing their achievements.

E.G. I've been dubbed the Queen

of Karaoke after my performance at the work Christmas party.

You are the Queen of Karaoke with her.

This is Learning English from the news, from BBC.

Learning English, we're talking about a Nobel Prize winner who has warned about the impact of the technology that made him famous.

So Geoffrey Hinton worked on technology which made him the Godfather of ai But now he often warns about the tech he helped to create.

Yes, in 2023, professor Hinton quit his job at Google and said that AI was dangerous.

He said that one day that we might not be able to control AI technology, and that it could destroy humanity.

And we have a headline about his warnings.

This one's from political, a European news website.

AI Doomsayer wins Nobel Prize for Key Research.

OK, let's hear that again. AI Doomsayer wins Nobel Prize for Key Research.

And that's from political we're interested in the word doomsayer.

Can you tell us more? Georgie Yes.

Let's split it up a bit.

So the 1st part of the word is doom, and that means a bad situation that can't be avoided.

And the 2nd part is sayer.

That's just someone who says something.

Okay. So a doomsayer is someone that says bad things are going to happen.

Yes? So the headline describes Jeffrey Hinton as a doomsayer because of his predictions about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Right? So are there any other ways we can use this?

Yes will. We often talk about lots of doomsayers, lots of people that say something bad is going to happen, or things won't go well.

And he turned out to be wrong.

So I could say that, despite all the doomsayers, my plan for a picnic in October went really well.

It didn't rain at all. OK?

Doom say a Godfather of AI.

It feels like there are a lot of dramatic names in this story.

Yes, this language is used to make the story more exciting and show that even though artificial intelligence is very complicated and hard for us to understand, there are a lot of opinions about how it will change the future.

Weve had Domsayer, someone who says, bad things that will happen, E.G.

Lots of people thought the CEO was a doomsayer, but he turned out to be right about the company's financial situation.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

Will be back next week with another new story, if you like, stories about AI.

We have lots of episodes of six minute English, all about how technology is changing the world.

Listen and learn useful vocabulary on our website, bbc learning english dot com.

And don't forget to check us out on social media.

Just search BBC Learning English on your favorite social media platform.

扫码查看听力音频