Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to two scientists for discoveries in machine learning: NPR

John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton, pictured, will be awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physics, which will be announced at a news conference on Tuesday by Hans Ellergren, center, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP

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Christine Olsson/TT News Agency via AP

STOCKHOLM – John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions that formed the building blocks of machine learning.

“This year's two Nobel Prize winners in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that form the basis of today's powerful machine learning,” the Nobel Committee said in a press release.

Hopfield conducts research at Princeton University and Hinton works at the University of Toronto.

Ellen Moons, a member of the Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said the two laureates had “used fundamental concepts in statistical physics to design artificial neural networks that act as associative memories and find patterns in large data sets.”

She said such networks are used to advance research in physics and “have also become part of our daily lives, for example in facial recognition and language translation.”

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded a day after two American scientists won the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA.

Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics last year for the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons, a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnosis.

The 2023 prize went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L'Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work with the tiny part of each atom that races around the center and is fundamental to virtually everything : Chemistry, physics, our bodies and our devices.

Six days of Nobel Prize announcements began Monday with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine prize for their discovery of tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on-off switches in cells, helping to control what the cells do and when they do it.

If scientists better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to effective treatments for diseases like cancer.

The physics prize carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest from the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. It has been awarded 117 times. Laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

The Nobel Prize announcements continue with the Chemistry-Physics Prize on Wednesday and the Literature Prize on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the Economics Prize on October 14th.