It came as a bolt from the blue for many Nobel watchers. This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics went to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their “foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning and artificial neural networks”.

In this podcast I explore the connections between artificial intelligence (AI) and physics with the author Anil Ananthaswamy – who has written the book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Maths Behind Modern AI. We delve into the careers of Hinton and Hopfield and explain how they laid much of the groundwork for today’s AI systems.

We also look at why Hinton has spoken out about the dangers of AI and chat about the connection between this year’s physics and chemistry Nobel prizes.