AI pioneers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton bag Nobel Physics Prize 2024

The Nobel Physics Prize 2024 was awarded to two scientists who pioneered discoveries in machine learning, which paved way for the artificial intelligence (AI) proliferation.

US scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton on Tuesday won the prestigious award, which was announced in Sweden. The award comes with a prize money of $1.1 million which is shared between the duo.

Nobel Physics Prize is the second award announced this week

According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences which awards the prize, Hopfield, a 91-year-old professor emeritus at Princeton University developed an associative memory that can store and reconstruct pictures other types of patterns in data.

“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.”

– Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

“Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionising science, engineering and daily life,” added the Academy.

Physics became the second Nobel to be awarded this week alone after Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, US scientists bagged the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation.

The Nobel is regarded as the most prestigious global award for physicists. It was created along with other awards for achievements in science, literature, and peace in Alfred Nobel’s will.

Although the prizes have been awarded with some interruptions since 1901, the Nobel Economics honor is a later addition in memory of the Swedish businessman and philanthropist who amassed a fortune from his invention of dynamite.

In the past, scientists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Enrico Fermi have also been awarded the prestigious recognition.

In 2023, Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier won the physics prize for their work in developing ultra-short pulses of light that can capture snapshot of changes within atoms which enhances the detection of diseases.

Concerns remain on dangers AI poses to humanity despite the Nobel recognition

Despite its transformative abilities of AI, the fast-growing technology has also raised fears that it may outsmart humans and outcompete its creation, resulting in disastrous situations. The scientists themselves are aware of the potential risks that AI poses to humanity.

Last year, Hinton, who is widely referred to as the godfather of AI, left his job at Google to enable himself to speak more openly about the dangers of the technology.

“We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us,” Hinton said over the phone to the Nobel press conference, speaking from a hotel in California.

“It’s going to be wonderful in many respects, in areas like healthcare. But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences. Particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.”

– Hinton.

Hinton, 76 and now professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, developed a method that can autonomously find properties in data as well as carry out tasks like identifying specific elements in images.

The scientist who quit his job last year at Google, however, praised his former employer saying the company acted responsibly. He revealed that he regretted some of his research although he acted on the information available at the moment. But he has felt machines could become smarter than people much sooner than the scientists, himself included had expected.

“In the same circumstances I would do the same again,” he told the Nobel press conference. “But I am worried that the overall consequence of this might be systems more intelligent than us that eventually take control.”

Asked to comment on the concerns around machine learning and AI, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, Ellen Moon admitted that while the technology has “enormous benefits,” the rapid developments in the AI industry have also raised concerns “about our future.”

“Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way, for the greatest benefit of humankind,” she said.