2024 Nobel Prize: John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton gets Physics prize for innovations in AI

Scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton was awarded 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on machine learning through artificial neural networks. They will share the prize money of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million). 

Stockholm: Scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for their groundbreaking discoveries and inventions that have advanced machine learning through artificial neural networks, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday.

The prize, totaling 11 million Swedish crowns (approximately $1.1 million), will be shared between the winners. This prestigious award is often seen as the pinnacle of achievement in the field of physics, originally established in the will of Alfred Nobel, along with prizes for literature and peace.

In a statement, the Academy highlighted that this year’s laureates have utilized principles from physics to create foundational methods for modern machine learning technologies.

"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," the Academy's statement reads.

The Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually since 1901, with some exceptions. The economics prize was introduced later in honor of Nobel, who gained wealth from his invention of dynamite. The physics prize, alongside those for peace and literature, frequently garners significant attention, featuring esteemed past winners like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Enrico Fermi.

Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier won last year's physics prize for creating ultra-short pulses of light that showcases changes within atoms. This can help in the detection of diseases.

Yesterday, U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun was announced as the winner of this year's medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA.