Nobel Laureate John Martinis Visits Croatian Roots, Backs AI and Quantum Computing

The news in Croatian

1. podrijetlo  (n.)
   porijeklo osobe ili stvari; odakle netko ili nešto potječe ↩︎
2. posjetiti
   otići nekome ili negdje u kratki boravak ↩︎
3. osjećati
   imati neki unutarnji doživljaj ili emociju ↩︎
4. održati
   provesti ili organizirati neki događaj ili aktivnost ↩︎
5. predavanje  (n.)
   govor ili izlaganje kojima se publici prenosi znanje o nekoj temi ↩︎
6. šteta  (f.)
   negativna posljedica ili gubitak uzrokovan nečim ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Where was John Martinis’s father born?

Question 2: What did Martinis say about artificial intelligence?

Vocabulary

Croatian	English
podrijetlo  (n.)	origin
posjetiti	to visit
osjećati	to feel
održati	to hold
predavanje  (n.)	lecture
šteta  (f.)	harm

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John Martinis, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist of Croatian heritage, has visited Croatia, describing the trip as a deeply personal homecoming. His father, Ivo, was born in Komiža on the island of Vis but emigrated to America after the Second World War, and his mother’s father was also of Croatian origin. Martinis last visited Croatia in 1978, spending much of his time in Komiža.

“In a way, I feel as though I am coming home,” Martinis said during his visit. “Croatian culture and my Croatian roots remind me of growing up, even though I grew up in the United States. Now that I am older and have my own grandchildren, I value my Croatian heritage more than ever before.”

Martinis delivered a public lecture at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management as part of the EUonAIR AI Summit, an international conference on artificial intelligence. He also gave a specialist lecture at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, and his visit will continue with a stay on Vis and a trip to Split, where the University of Split will award him an honorary doctorate.

At the summit, Martinis said he believes artificial intelligence will bring more benefits than harm, though he stressed the need for caution and thoroughness in decisions relating to AI. He noted that he himself uses AI almost every day as a powerful search tool, while also acknowledging concerns about its impact on the labour market.

On quantum computing — the focus of his research — Martinis described it as an entirely new way of processing data that uses the laws of quantum mechanics. Unlike classical computers, which use bits with a value of zero or one, quantum computers use quantum states that can be both simultaneously. He believes quantum computing will eventually represent as great a revolution as AI is today.

Also speaking at the summit was Joel Mokyr, an American-Israeli economic historian and fellow Nobel laureate. Mokyr compared AI today to where computers were in the 1960s, saying nobody then knew how they would transform society. “If destruction ever comes, it will not be caused by artificial intelligence, but by human stupidity,” he said, adding that AI is a tool, not a human being.