Godfather of AI shares Nobel Prize in physics for work on machine learning [Video]

The 2024 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their fundamental discoveries in machine learning, which paved the way for how artificial intelligence is used today.

Hopfield, a professor at Princeton University and Hinton, a computer scientist at the University of Toronto, were praised for laying the foundations for the machine learning that powers many of today’s AI-based products and applications. Hinton, however, has also expressed fears about AI’s future development, cutting ties with his former employer Google in order to speak more freely on the issue.

“Their work was fundamental in laying the cornerstones for what we experience today as artificial intelligence,” Mark Pearce, a member of the Nobel committee of physics, told CNN.

The committee announced the prestigious honor, seen as the pinnacle of scientific achievement, in Sweden on Monday. The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million).

Hinton, who …