How physics and machine studying joined forces to win the Physics Nobel ‘24

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was simply introduced on 2024–10–04, and this yr’s award went to Prof. John Hopfield and Prof. Geoffrey Hinton. However it’s a bit completely different this time. As an alternative of the standard discoveries in regards to the pure world, the prize was awarded for one thing a bit extra synthetic:

“for foundational discoveries and innovations that allow machine studying with synthetic neural networks.”

— Nobel Basis Press Launch

Two machine studying (ML) fashions have been highlighted: the Hopfield community and the Boltzmann machine. This may increasingly shock some, as ML can appear far faraway from physics. Nonetheless, many early foundational ML ideas have been impressed by bodily programs.

What was the importance of the award? I imagine it was to spotlight latest superior in generative AI (in textual content/picture/video generations), and to remind us that the foundations of those fashionable fashions are rooted in physics. Extra particularly, Hopfield networks and Boltzmann machines may be regarded as a number of the authentic generative fashions, borrowing physics ideas from pure…