Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to 2 Scientists for Discoveries That Enabled Artificial Intelligence

This photo combo shows the 2024 Nobel Prize winners in Physics, professor John Hopfield, (L), of Princeton University, and professor Geoffrey Hinton, of the University of Toronto, on Oct. 8, 2024. Princeton University via AP and Noah Berger/AP Photo

STOCKHOLM—Two pioneers of artificial intelligence—John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton—won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for helping create the building blocks of machine learning that is revolutionizing the way we work and live but also creates new threats to humanity, one of the winners said.

Hinton, who is known as the Godfather of artificial intelligence, is a citizen of Canada and Britain who works at the University of Toronto and Hopfield is an American working at Princeton.