Nobel Prize in Physics 2024

On Tuesday, 8 October 2024, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”.

From the press release of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences:

“This year’s two Nobel Laureates in Physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning. John Hopfeld 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 specifc elements in pictures.

When we talk about artifcial intelligence, we often mean machine learning using artifcial neural networks. This technology was originally inspired by the structure of the brain. In an artifcial neural network, the brain’s neurons are represented by nodes that have diferent values. These nodes infuence each other through connections that can be likened to synapses and which can be made stronger or weaker. The network is trained, for example by developing stronger connections between nodes with simultaneously high values. This year’s laureates have conducted important work with artifcial neural networks from the 1980s onward.”

Read more about the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.