I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Richard Sutton, co-founder of Openmind Research Institute and a pioneer in Reinforcement Learning, for being honoured with the 2024 Turing Award—often described as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” This accolade reflects his groundbreaking contributions, which have shaped modern AI across a wide spectrum of applications, from LLMs to robotics and everything in between. His influence resonates throughout classrooms, research, and everyday life worldwide.

As a self-professed science nerd, I’ve had the privilege and honour of working with him through the Openmind board. Rich co-founded Openmind alongside Randy Goebel and Joseph Modayil as a non-profit focused on conducting fundamental AI research to better understand minds. We believe that the greatest breakthroughs in AI are still ahead of us, and that basic research lays the groundwork for future commercial and technological innovations.

A core principle of Openmind—and a guiding philosophy of its co-founders—is a commitment to open research: there are no intellectual property restrictions on its work, ensuring everyone can contribute to and build upon this shared body of knowledge. Rich’s vision and dedication continue to inspire researchers and practitioners around the world to push the boundaries of AI and openly share their insights. This Turing Award is a well-deserved recognition of his transformative impact, and I can’t wait to see the breakthroughs that lie ahead as his work continues to redefine our understanding of intelligence.

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