ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded today to two researchers for their work on artificial intelligence. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel has more on the winners and how their discoveries are changing the world.
GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE: When I learned early this morning that this year's Nobel Prize in physics went to AI, I did what any overworked, very tired physics reporter would do.
Hi, ChatGPT.
AI-GENERATED VOICE: Hello there. How's it going?
BRUMFIEL: I turned to the AI tools that won the prize to get some help.
Who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics?
AI-GENERATED VOICE: The 2024 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier.
BRUMFIEL: That's wrong. Those are the 2023 Physics Nobel Prize winners. AI is a work in progress. We all know that. But it's made incredible strides, and that's thanks in large part to the researchers who did win this year's Nobel Prize in physics - John Hopfield of Princeton University and Geoffrey Hinton of the University of Toronto in Canada. They helped develop neural networks - computer programs that work in ways similar to how scientists believe the brain might work. Mala Murthy is a colleague of John Hopfield who directs Princeton's Neuroscience Institute.
MALA MURTHY: In the early 1980s, John sought a very hard problem to work on - how the brain stores memory.
BRUMFIEL: He created a mathematical network that could effectively remember information.
MURTHY: His pioneering development of the Hopfield network laid the foundation for modern computational neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
BRUMFIEL: Once AI networks could remember things, it was possible for them to learn. The committee awarded the other half of the prize to Hinton for his role in developing AI systems that could learn patterns by studying data. That's led to breakthroughs in facial recognition, language translation and, of course, AI chatbots.
AI can already beat the best humans at many tasks - games like chess, for example. Speaking at the Nobel Prize announcement this morning, Hinton says he expects it'll get even smarter, and that's going to change everything.
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GEOFFREY HINTON: This will be comparable with the Industrial Revolution. But instead of exceeding people in physical strength, it's going to exceed people in intellectual ability.
BRUMFIEL: He thinks it has the potential to help speed medical diagnosis and scientific discoveries - unless the AI decides it wants to do something else.
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HINTON: I am worried that the overall consequence of this might be systems more intelligent than us that eventually take control.
BRUMFIEL: But Hinton says, despite his role in the possible end of humanity, he's delighted to have won a Nobel Prize.
Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.
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