The Nobel prize in Physics 2024 has been awarded to John J Hopfield and Geoffrey E Hinton “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.”
The 2024 Nobel Prize laureates in Physics utilized tools from their field to develop methods that have significantly contributed to the foundation of modern machine learning.
John Hopfield created a framework capable of storing and reconstructing information, while Geoffrey Hinton developed a technique that enables the independent discovery of properties within data, which is crucial for today’s large artificial neural networks.
Who are the laureates and what did they develop
John Hopfield: He developed a network that employs a method for storing and reconstructing patterns, where the nodes can be visualized as pixels. The Hopfield network draws on physics principles related to a material’s properties influenced by atomic spin, which allows each atom to act as a tiny magnet.
This network is described in terms similar to the energy in a spin system, and it is trained by adjusting the connection values between nodes to ensure that the stored images maintain low energy levels. When presented with a distorted or incomplete image, the Hopfield network systematically updates the values of its nodes, reducing its energy to find the stored image that most closely resembles the input.
Geoffrey Hinton: He built upon the Hopfield network to create a new model known as the Boltzmann machine, which employs a different learning method to recognize key features in specific types of data. Hinton utilized concepts from statistical physics, which studies systems composed of many similar components.
The Boltzmann machine is trained by providing it with examples that are highly probable when the machine is executed. It can classify images and generate new instances of the patterns it has learned.
All about Nobel prize in Physics
- From 1901 to 2023, the Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded 117 times to a total of 225 laureates. Notably, John Bardeen is the only recipient to have won the prize twice, in 1956 and 1972. This brings the total number of individuals who have received the Nobel Prize in Physics to 224.
- The youngest Nobel laureate is Lawrence Bragg. He received the prize in 1915 “for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays”
- The
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was assigned to award the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, the Karolinska Institutet was chosen for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and a committee of five members elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize. - In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences tasked with selecting the laureates starting in 1969.