“People will not drive anymore in 10 or 20 years, unless it is for fun”

Awarded the 12th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies, Vladimir Vapnik explains in this interview the fundamental concepts of his work in statistical learning theory. He describes how the development of methods such as support vector machines (SVMs) and their contributions to understanding generalization transformed the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning. His reflections underscore the power of a sound theory to guide practical advances in technology, from pattern recognition to complex intelligent systems.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communications Technology category has gone in this twelfth edition to Isabelle Guyon, Bernhard Schölkopf and Vladimir Vapnik, for their “fundamental contributions to machine learning,” in the words of the committee