Humans still necessary despite AI’s rapid evolution: Japanese Nobel laureates

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) – Two Japanese scientists who are among this year's Nobel laureates said Monday that humans are still necessary despite the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI).

Shimon Sakaguchi and Susumu Kitagawa, both 74 years old, made the comments during a forum at Kyoto University in their first public dialogue since they received Nobel prizes last month in medicine and chemistry respectively.

Kitagawa, a professor at Kyoto University, said that while AI is useful, "human input is still needed," noting that AI requires people to feed it data, according to Kyodo news agency.

Sakaguchi, a professor from the University of Osaka, concurred with Kitagawa, saying "AI is something to be used, not something that uses us."

He said that while AI can improve medical diagnoses, “humans decide what's new and important in research."

The two laureates also urged young people to engage with philosophy and literature, noting that such exposure to the humanities would enrich scientific thinking.