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Nobel Physics Prize Awarded for Pioneering A.I. Research by 2 Scientists (John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton). I’m a little confused why this qualifies for the physics prize? Applied physics I guess?

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Jason KottkeMOD

Ahh, The Onion: Nobel Prize In Physics Awarded To Alien Giving Peace Sign Driving Tie-Dye VW Bug.

In a ceremony at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Committee reportedly awarded their annual prize in physics Tuesday to Zoomer and Zorbit, two aliens commonly seen driving a tie-dye Volkswagen bug while flashing peace signs.

Jason KottkeMOD

This piece in Ars Technica explains more about why this was a physics prize:

From the Nobel committee's point of view, the award largely derives from the fact that the two men drew from statistical models used in physics and partly from recognizing the advancements in physics research that came from using the men's neural network techniques as research tools.

Nobel committee chair Ellen Moons, a physicist at Karlstad University, Sweden, said during the announcement, "Artificial neural networks have been used to advance research across physics topics as diverse as particle physics, material science and astrophysics."

(via @jamiemccarthy)

Pete Ashton

Is this like The Bear winning a comedy Emmy?

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