American John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for pioneering work in the development of artificial intelligence.
The pair were honoured “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks,” the jury said.
“These artificial neural networks have been used to advance research across physics topics as diverse as particle physics, material science and astrophysics,” Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, told a press conference.
Moons also noted that these tools have also become part of our daily lives, including in facial recognition and language translation.
While lauding the potential of AI, Moons noted that “its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future collectively.”
“Humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way,” she said.
Hopfield, a 91-year-old professor at Princeton University, was spotlighted for having created “an …