The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to John J. Hopfield, Geoffrey E. Hinton for Pathbreaking Contributions to Machine Learning

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences  awards the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton for pioneering research in machine learning.

The scientists were recognized for making "foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks", the Academy said.

Applying tools developed in physics, Scientists created methods that underlie the power of today's machine learning.

While Hopfield developed an associative memory to store and recover images and other types of patterns within data, Hinton developed a technique automatically discovering properties in data. These can identify particular objects in photographs.

The Academy commented that the scientist pair have made big contributions with artificial neural networks since the 1980s.

The work of laureates has already benefited humanity in many ways. "The laureates' work has already been of the greatest benefit. In physics, we use artificial neural networks in a vast range of areas, including developing new materials with specific properties," said Ellen Moons, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Hopfield was born in 1933 at Chicago, received his PhD from Cornell University, New York. Today he is a Professor at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Hinton born in 1947 in London, UK. In 1978, received his PhD from University of Edinburgh. Today he is a Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada.

The research couple will share a prize of 11 million Swedish crowns, which amounts to $1.1 million.

Last year's physics prize was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L'Huillier for their invention of ultra-short pulses of light that can give a snapshot of changes within atoms, potentially even helping improve the detection of diseases.