The 2024 Nobel Prize Winners In Physics Are Announced

• 8.10.2024, 13:20

The prize is awarded for discoveries in machine learning.

The Nobel Committee on Tuesday, October 8, named the winners in physics. They are John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for "fundamental discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning using artificial neural networks."

The Press Service of the Nobel Foundation reported this.

What is known about the laureates

Two of this year's Nobel laureates in physics used the tools of physics to develop methods that are the basis of today's powerful machine learning. John Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of data patterns.

Geoffrey Hinton invented a method that can autonomously find features in data and perform tasks such as identifying specific features in images.

When we talk about artificial intelligence, we often mean machine learning using artificial neural networks. This development was initially inspired by the structure of the brain.

In an artificial neural network, neurons in the brain are represented by nodes that have different values. These nodes influence each other through connections that can be made stronger or weaker.

The network learns, for example, by developing stronger connections between nodes with simultaneously high values. This year's laureates have done important work with artificial neural networks since the 1980s.