OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 was awarded jointly to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton 'for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks'.
Announcing the award Thursday, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said this year's Laureates have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning. 'John Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. Geoffrey Hinton invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data, and so perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures'.
Both the scientists have conducted important work with artificial neural networks from the 1980s onward.
'The laureates' work has already been of the greatest benefit. In physics we use artificial neural networks in a vast range of areas, such as developing new materials with specific properties,' said Ellen Moons, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
An American physicist and emeritus professor of Princeton University, 91-year-old Hopfield has won various major physics awards for his work in multidisciplinary fields including condensed matter physics, statistical physics and biophysics.
Geoffrey Everest Hinton is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist and cognitive psychologist, known for his work on artificial neural networks which earned him the title as the 'Godfather of AI'.
Hinton, 76, is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 2013 to 2023, he worked for Google Brain. He publicly announced his departure from Google in May 2023, citing concerns about the risks of artificial intelligence technology. In 2017, he co-founded and became the chief scientific advisor of the Vector Institute in Toronto.
Hopfield and Hinton will share the prize amount of 11 million Swedish kronor, or $1.05 million, equally.
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