The so-called “Godfather of AI” who won the Nobel Prize is Geoffrey Hinton. He was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside John Hopfield for their foundational discoveries and inventions that enabled machine learning with artificial neural networks.
Hinton, a British-Canadian computer scientist and cognitive psychologist, is widely recognized for his pioneering work on neural networks, particularly the development of the Boltzmann machine and contributions to the backpropagation algorithm, which have been critical to modern AI systems like ChatGPT.
The work of each, starting in the 1980s, laid the groundwork for the AI revolution, earning them the title “Godfathers of AI.”
John J. Hopfield delivered his Nobel Prize lecture “Physics is a point of view” on 8 December 2024 at the Aula Magna, Stockholm University. He was introduced by Professor Ellen Moons, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics.
