John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries that helped computers learn more in the way the human brain does, providing the building blocks for developments in artificial intelligence. The award is an acknowledgment of A.I.’s growing significance in the way people live and work. With its ability to make sense of vast amounts of data, machine learning that uses artificial neural networks already has a major role in scientific research, the Nobel committee said, including in physics, where it is used for the creation of “new materials with specific properties.” The breakthroughs of Dr. Hopfield and Dr. Hinton “stand on the foundations of physical science,” the committee said on X. “They have showed a completely new way for us to use computers to aid and to guide us to tackle many of the challenges our society face.” Journalists attending the announcement in Stockholm took turns asking Dr. Hinton, who has been called the “godfather of A.I.,” questions about his work, and he expressed worries over machine learning and said it would have an extraordinary influence on society. “It will be comparable with the Industrial Revolution,” he said. “Instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it’s going to exceed people in intellectual ability. We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us.” While Dr. Hinton expressed his concerns, he shared that the advanced technology would bring much better health care. “It’ll mean huge improvements in productivity,” he said. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.” Dr. Hinton, born just outside London, has mostly lived and worked in the United States and Canada since the late 1970s. He recently retired from his job as a researcher and vice president at Google — in part, he said, so that he could speak freely about the rise of A.I. — and is a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto.

Full report : Two Scientists who built ‘foundation’ for AI awarded Nobel Prize.