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The Conversation
The Conversation
Aaron J. Snoswell, Research Fellow in AI Accountability, Queensland University of Technology

Physics Nobel awarded to neural network pioneers who laid foundations for AI

John Hopfield Geoffrey Hinton Geoff Hinton Nobel Prize the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to scientists John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks”.

Inspired by ideas from physics and biology, Hopfield and Hinton developed computer systems that can memorise and learn from patterns in data. Despite never directly collaborating, they built on each other’s work to develop the foundations of the current boom in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

What are neural networks? (And what do they have to do with physics?)

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