Hinton was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, sharing the award with John Hopfield for respective works designing neural networks that laid the foundations for machine learning systems used today.
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“[Hinton and Hopfield]’s work has already been of the greatest benefit,” said Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics. “In physics, we use artificial neural networks in a vast range of areas, such as developing new materials with specific properties.”
The pair’s prize comes with 11 million Swedish kronor (US$1.05 million) to share.
Their names are now forever etched alongside previous Nobel physics winners like Marie Curie, Eric Allen Cornell, and Gabriel Lippmann.
An artificial neural network is modelled after how the human brain processes information. Instead of neurons, it uses a series of interconnected nodes that mimic neural connections, allowing the system to process complex data efficiently.
Works by Hinton and Hopfield date back to the 1980s but have laid the foundations for machine learning systems used today.
Hopfield developed an associative memory system capable of storing and reconstructing images and other patterns in data.
Hinton, meanwhile, invented a method for autonomously finding properties in data, enabling machine learning models to perform tasks like image recognition.
In a press conference following the announcement, Hinton said he was “surprised” to have won the Nobel prize.
“I think of the prize as a recognition of a large community of people who worked on neural networks for many years before they worked really well,” Hinton said.
Hinton also cheekily hit out at a prominent AI CEO, saying: “I'm particularly proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman.”
Among the notable names to congratulate Hinton and Hopfiled were Andrew Ng, the machine learning pioneer and Google Brain co-founder.
I was the first to call Geoff Hinton "Godfather of Deep Learning", which later became "Godfather of AI." Thrilled to see him win the Nobel prize together with John Hopfield for AI. Congrats @geoffreyhinton!
— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) October 8, 2024
Another AI godfather to congratulate the pair was Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Meta, who did his post-doc in Hinton’s lab at the University of Toronto.
Congrats John and Geoff!
Both are former colleagues.
I did my postdoc in Geoff's lab in Toronto.
After that, I joined Bell Labs, where John was a part-time scientist (and a professor at Caltech).
In fact, John was the reason why the department I joined was working on neural nets.… https://t.co/2eyQ8u7PNa
— Yann LeCun (@ylecun) October 8, 2024
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