University of Toronto professor woke up confused at 1 a.m. to news he won Nobel Prize

Geoffrey Hinton, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto, has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discoveries and inventions, which enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. 

Dubbed the "godfather" of artificial intelligence, Hinton was recognized by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his work on developing methods that are foundational for today's powerful machine learning. 

Hinton was born in 1947 in London, U.K., and obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Between 2013 and 2023, the computer scientist divided his time working for Google and teaching at the University of Toronto, before publicly announcing his departure from the former in May 2023, citing concerns about the risks of AI. 

The independent organization recognized Hinton for inventing a method that can autonomously find properties in data and perform tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures. 

#UofT Professor Emeritus Geoffrey Hinton has won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Hinton shares the prize with John J. Hopfield “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks.” #NobelPrize https://t.co/NkWyAwi3eZ pic.twitter.com/9RKxGTeinR

— University of Toronto (@UofT) October 8, 2024

Hinton was awarded the prestigious prize alongside John J. Hopfield from Princeton University, who created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data. 

Hinton used the Hopfield network as the foundation for a new network that uses a different method — the Boltzmann machine, which can learn to recognize characteristic elements in a given type of data. 

"My phone buzzed at 1 o'clock in the morning, and I thought 'Should I answer that?' Hinton told CP24 when he was asked how he found out he won the prize. 

"Luckily, I decided to answer it," he explained, noting that the person on the other line had a Swedish accent. "My first thought was how do I know this isn't a spoof call? I really wasn't expecting it." 

"I'm in a cheap hotel in California which doesn't have a good internet or phone connection. I was going to have an MRI scan today but I'll have to cancel that!"

- New physics laureate Geoffrey Hinton speaking at today’s press conference where his #NobelPrize was announced. pic.twitter.com/i7jnucEhFl

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 8, 2024

The computer scientist also said he was "flabbergasted" to receive the prize, which carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (equivalent to CAD $1.44 million), which is divided between the winners.