The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics Did Not Go To Physics -- This Physicist is very surprised

A quick comment on the 2024 Nobel Prize in physics which was awarded for the basis of neural networks and artificial intelligence. Well deserved, but is it physics?

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#science #sciencenews #physisc #nobelprize2024

[Quwucuqin]

Very disappointed physics isn't something it used to be

[sergimila]

While the entire world has not noticed it, AI has taken over and rewarded itself.

EDIT (thank you to the commentors that pointed out the incorrect syntax. To be honest I didn't expect my comment to become so notorious 😅)

[mathewperring]

Finally, physicists get to experience what us, poor chemists, were putting up with for years.

[bentonjackson]

In my first college physics class, the professor started by saying "If it moves, it's biology. If it explodes, it's chemistry. If it's up to something interesting it's physics."

[juliangall]

As Large Language Models are used for writing, I look forward to them winning the Nobel Prize for Literature next.

[Chemiolis]

Usually the Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Biology. We should band together and make the prizes actually go to their respective field ;)

[jeffden]

Dear Nobel Physics Committee,
Please allow the Fields Medal, the Turing Award, and the countless other mathematics and computer science prizes to do their job.

[EEVblog]

3:09 Engineers use screwdrivers to build things. Better give the inventor of the screwdriver the top research engineering prize.

[HellCatLeMaudit]

Next year's Physics Nobel will be given to quantitative finance analysts for using the heat equation and ideas from statistical mechanics to predict price action and making a lot of money. It's like I am hearing Max Planck's teacher again when he told Planck to become a concert pianist instead of a physicist because physics has been solved.

[AndrewPa]

Was waiting for someone to say this . Sabine - well done!

[abdatmohammed]

It's like awarding the best chef prize to the blacksmith who crafted a beautiful knife, and then saying that this knife is very useful for cutting vegetables, fruits, and other kitchen tasks.

It’s truly disheartening for us as physicists to see this happening. I wish it were just a dream or a prank. 😢😢😢😢😢💔

[brianhopson]

I'm sure ChatGPT was "consulted" on the Nobel prize's decision making.

[cameronmurie]

But Sabine: you told us last week Physics is dead or busy dying: so it seems you were, as usual, correct. The Nobel Foundation is with you. 🙂

[nicholasstapleton]

As a computer scientist I’m elated. As someone who specializes in learning machines, we do not deserve a Nobel in physics for this work.

[Chinookman]

Read the headline, came here to see if you had made a video. You haven't disappointed. Thank you for making this effort among many.

[attilakiss]

Couldn't agree more. Mathematics is a good example too, it is used everywhere but it is not physics too.

[robertozanconato]

Essentially, computer based neural nets are just a practical implementation of mathematical models. Absolutely nothing to do with physics.

[PerMattson]

The claim is that the prize "did not go to physics, " but what Hopfield did WAS physics. He investigated the emergent properties of a system of particles interacting in a mathematically well-defined way, which is the central goal of condensed matter physics. In condensed matter physics, the particles are typically atoms, the interactions are typically electrostatic or magnetic forces, and the emergent properties are things like magnetism or phase. In Hopfield's case, the particles are abstractions of neurons, the interactions are abstract representations of action potentials in synapses, and the emergent properties are computational (associative memory). All this is spelled out clearly in his 1982 PNAS paper. But such an investigation is no different, in principle, from investigating some simplified model of some material, which no one would ever claim was "not physics." What does set his work apart is the enormous creativity in realizing the potential of such an application. That's why it deserves the Nobel Prize in Physics.

[Endymion]

And the award for best hamburger goes to. . .
PIZZA!

[pierluigi]

As a computer scientist, I think giving the prize for inventing neural networks makes no sense. It is engineering+statistics, but not physics.