Two scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.” John Hopfield, an emeritus professor of Princeton University, devised an associative memory that's able to store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. Geoffrey Hinton, who has been dubbed the "Godfather of AI," pioneered a way to autonomously find properties in data, leading to the ability to identify certain elements in pictures.

"This year’s physics laureates’ breakthroughs stand on the foundations of physical science. They have showed a completely new way for us to use computers to aid and to guide us to tackle many of the challenges our society face," the committee wrote on X. "Thanks to their work humanity now has a new item in its toolbox, which we can choose to use for good purposes. Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionizing science, engineering and daily life."

However, Hinton has grown concerned about machine learning and its potential impact on society. He was part of Google's deep-learning artificial intelligence team (Google Brain, which merged with DeepMind last year) for many years before resigning in May 2023 so he could "freely speak out about the risks of AI." At the time, he expressed concern about generative AI spurring a tsunami of misinformation and having the potential to wipe out jobs, along with the possibility of fully autonomous weapons emerging.

Although Hinton acknowledged the likelihood that machine learning and AI will improve health care, "it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us,” he told reporters, according to The New York Times. That said, Hinton, a Turing Award winner and professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, was “flabbergasted” to learn that he had become a Nobel Prize laureate.

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