The godfathers of artificial intelligence have just won the Nobel Prize in physics

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two scientists, Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, for their work on machine learning. The announcement was made by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at a press conference in Stockholm.

As a curiosity, British-Canadian professor Geoffrey Hinton, nicknamed the “godfather of artificial intelligence”, expressed surprise, having resigned from Google in 2023 and has since warned of the dangers of machines potentially smarter than humans.

For his part, the American professor John Hopfield is a professor at Princeton University (United States) and Geoffrey Hinton teaches at the University of Toronto (Canada).

For their contribution to the development of machine learning

Machine learning is a key part of artificial intelligence, as it trains a computer to generate information. This process is the basis of many technologies we use every day, from searching the internet to editing photos on our phones.

The Academy highlighted some of the key applications of the two scientists’ work, such as improving climate modeling, the development of solar cells and the analysis of medical images.

Professor Hinton’s pioneering research into neural networks paved the way for artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT. In this field, neural networks imitate the functioning of the human brain in learning and processing information. They allow AI to learn through experience, just like a human being. This is called deep learning.

Professor Hinton said his work on artificial neural networks was groundbreaking. However, he also expressed concern about the future, saying he would do this work again, “but I fear the overall consequences of this will be systems smarter than us eventually taking control.”

As Nobel laureates, the two professors will share a financial reward of 11 million Swedish crowns (or approximately $1 million).