The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 already has an owner: John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. In this way, the Swedish Academy of Sciences The European Commission has winked at and acknowledged all the progress that has been made in areas such as the machine learning and in the artificial intelligence. These two laureates are considered to be the godfathers of these new technologies, as they laid the foundations for all the tools we live with today.
John Hopfield y Geoffrey Hinton have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 “for fundamental discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with neural networks”. Both have contributed to the rise of machine learning, as they have Hinton is considered the father of artificial intelligence y Hopfield was one of the first to build a artificial neural network.
Why award him the Nobel Prize in Physics? Because they both relied on the tools of physics to develop their projects. On the one hand, Hopfield created a associative memory in 1982 that was capable of storing and reconstructing images. For his part, Hinton was the creator of the Boltzmann machine, a method that allows a machine to find properties autonomously.
At Euroinnova, we would like to take a closer look at these two figures who have just made history with the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024. In Hinton's case, he also received other awards, such as the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies from the BBVA Foundation, the Turing Award in 2018 and the Princess of Asturias together with Yoshua Bengio and Demis Hassabis.
What is the Hopfield network?
What do we mean when we talk about the Hopfield network? This is a type of neural network that works like an associative memory network. Practically, it is used to store patterns and retrieve one of them, even if the input is incomplete. A network of neurons? That's right, binary neurons that are connected to each other.
The main characteristics of the Hopfield network are as follows:
- Pattern storage: the network adjusts the connections to encode the desired patterns.
- Recovery: the network can converge to the nearest complete pattern.
- Grid energy: uses an energy function similar to that of a physical system.
Don't you understand? If we explain it in another way, we can say that the Hopfield network is like that group of friends who help each other so that you don't forget anyone. If you forget a part of a memory, this network of friends would try to fill in what is missing so that you remember everything. An example of this is in pictures, as the Hopfield network could guess what is missing from a picture and give it back to you in its entirety.
What is the Hinton Boltzmann machine?
Now it's time to look at the breakthrough for which Geoffrey Hinton has been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics: the Boltzmann machine. Developed with Terrence Sejnowski, this is a stochastic neural network model, in which neurons are randomly connected to each other. This contrasts with deterministic models that follow fixed rules.
These are the key features of the Boltzmann machine:
- Boltzmann distribution: the distribution follows a Boltzmann-type probability, where neurons are activated according to that probability.
- Stochastic learning.
- Deep networks: Restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) are used as building blocks for deep learning neural networks.
Another way to explain the Boltzmann machine is through a child who plays with many toys, but who, at one point, mixes them up to see what happens. This Hinton network is not just about remembering, it also looks for patterns and rules hidden in memories. It's like a guessing game that gets better each time you play.
The man who warned of the danger of AI
The case of Geoffrey Hinton is curious, since in 2023 resigned and left his position as Google's vice president of engineering, warning of the consequences of artificial intelligence. In many of his interviews, the British scientist warned of the generation of fake news, for example.
In addition, he highlighted the impact that AI can have on the labour market, widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Most worryingly, Hinton pointed out that he was realising that the kind of artificial intelligence being created may be a better intelligence than biological brains.
How can the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 warn about the expansion of his own discoveries? Because, obviously, Hinton cannot influence the decisions made by large companies. On the other hand, he did contribute to an improvement of society.
A recognition of advances in machine learning
For many, this Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 is a recognition of research into machine learning, neural networks and deep learning. These systems are the basis of the artificial intelligence we know today. ChatGPT burst into our lives thanks to the work of scientists such as Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield.
Undoubtedly, its advances have transformed many areas of AI, such as the image processing and data science. On the positive side, many of these advances are already having an impact on our daily lives. One example is virtual assistants such as Siri or Alexa, which can complete any kind of task by recognising your voice.
The applications of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 We are also seeing tools that incorporate these technologies in other areas such as healthcare. Here, machine learning helps to detect diseases at an early stage, with all the advantages that this entails for patients.
Looking back at the Nobel Prize in Physics
If we take a look back at the Nobel Prize in Physics, we can see how in 2023 the winners were Anne L'Huillier from France, Pierre Agostini from France and Ferenc Krausz from Hungary. The Swedish Academy awarded them this prize for developing new tools to measure and observe the tiniest matter in motion.
This Nobel Prize in Physics has been carried out a total of 117 times and has been awarded to 225 Nobel Prizes. All this, between 1901 and 2023. Is there anyone who has won it twice? Yes, John Bardeen won it in 1956 and 1972.
And what is the role of women in the Nobel Prize in Physics? Well, there were only two winners in the 20th century. One of them is Marie Curie, who won both the Nobel Prize for Physics and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In total, five women have won this Nobel Prize, a prize that means an income of 11 million Swedish kronor, which translates into around 950,000 euros.
Español 
English (UK) 
Français