Reinforcement learning pioneers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton have warned against the unsafe deployment of AI systems [alternative source] after winning computing's prestigious $1 million Turing Award Wednesday. "Releasing software to millions of people without safeguards is not good engineering practice," said Barto, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, comparing it to testing a bridge by having people use it.

Barto and Sutton developed reinforcement learning in the 1980s, inspired by psychological studies of human learning. The technique, which rewards AI systems for desired behaviors, has become fundamental to advances at OpenAI and Google. Sutton, a University of Alberta professor and former DeepMind researcher, dismissed tech companies' artificial general intelligence narrative as "hype."

Both laureates also criticized President Trump's proposed cuts to federal research funding, with Barto calling it "wrong and a tragedy" that would eliminate opportunities for exploratory research like their early work.

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