AI pioneers Andrew Barto, Richard Sutton bag ‘Nobel Prize of computing’

In 1977, Andrew Barto, as a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, began exploring a new theory that neurons behaved like hedonists. The basic idea was that the human brain was driven by billions of nerve cells that were each trying to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

A year later, he was joined by another young researcher, Richard Sutton. Together, they worked to explain human intelligence using this simple concept and applied it to artificial intelligence. The result was “reinforcement learning,” a way for AI systems to learn from the digital equivalent of pleasure and pain.