Washington [US], October 9: The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to an American-Canadian duo for their achievements in machine learning, key to the development of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics to two scientists, John F. Hopfield of Princeton University (USA) and Geoffrey E. Hinton of the University of Toronto (Canada), according to an announcement posted on The Nobel Prize website yesterday afternoon (October 8, Vietnam time). The two will share the prize money of 11 million Swedish krona (26.3 billion VND).
Opening a new era
According to the announcement, the two scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Physics this year used the tools of physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today's machine learning technology. "When we talk about artificial intelligence (AI), we often refer to machine learning using artificial neural networks. Machine learning based on artificial neural systems is triggering a profound revolution in science, engineering and everyday life," according to the Nobel Assembly for Physics.
Mr. Hopfield, 91, created an associative memory that can store and recreate images and other types of patterns in data, while Mr. Hinton, 77, invented a method that can automatically find features in data and thereby perform operations such as identifying specific elements in an image.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 has developed techniques that use the structure of artificial neural networks to process information. This has led to the rapid development of machine learning over the past two decades. "Although computers cannot think, they can now mimic functions such as memory and learning. This year's Nobel Prize winners have helped make this vision a reality," the Nobel Committee for Physics said.
Therefore, professors Hopfield and Hinton are recognized for bringing to humanity "a completely new way of using computers to support and guide people" to solve many problems facing society , according to the Nobel Committee for Physics.
Promises and concerns
In a phone interview at the award announcement, Professor Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI", said AI will have a huge impact on human society.
"The impact of AI can be compared to the industrial revolution. However, instead of bringing physical superiority over humans, what is happening is that humans will be surpassed in intellectual capacity. We have never experienced facing things that are smarter than us," CNN quoted Mr. Hinton.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper