Nobel prizes prove that AI has left the research labs forever

This year’s Nobel prizes are another turning point that begs the question: where next for humanity? AFP

The Nobel prizes, regarded by many scientists as the pinnacle of professional achievement, often do an admirable job of bringing complex – sometimes niche – discoveries to lay audiences.

Some findings are perhaps less likely to catch the public’s imagination than others. In 2022, Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the Nobel Prize for Physics for “experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science” – important work, surely, but not a topic for most water-cooler conversations.

But the 2024 prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine, announced earlier this week, are linked to a technology that has already staked a place in the zeitgeist, and could prove to be as revolutionary as the theory of relativity developed by another Nobel winner, Albert Einstein.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded this year’s prize in physics to researchers John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton – also known as the "godfather of AI" – for "foundational advances in machine learning with artificial neural networks". In chemistry, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were awarded a Nobel for developing an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem, that of predicting proteins’ complex structures. Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won their Nobel prize in medicine for discovering microRNA, a vital component of effective Covid-19 vaccines in which AI tools played a key developmental role.

All three cases help to reveal AI as perhaps the most ubiquitous and impactful technology of the early 21st century. Research into machine learning and advanced computing was once considered a fringe science but now it powers everything from everyday tools such as ChatGPT to research into climate change and space exploration. AI’s ability to play a part in everything from protein research or vaccine development has now been recognised at the highest level.

Many of the recipients of this year’s prizes also reflect AI’s emergence from university labs into the wider world. For example, Mr Hinton was a key figure at Google AI’s division for many years and Mr Hassabis is an entrepreneur and the chief executive of DeepMind, an influential AI research company. He has also advised the UK government on AI.

Closer to home, AI’s potential for changing the world and tackling global crises has also been reflected in the Zayed Sustainability Prize, which this week selected the 33 finalists among projects that aim to harness artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to reduce carbon emissions and ensure access to clean energy, water, food and health care. The UAE’s embrace of this pioneering science – from having the world’s first minister for AI as well as setting up the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence – shows it is at forefront of this new era.

Einstein’s 1921 Nobel prize for discovering the photoelectric effect helped revolutionise our understanding of physics. Crick, Watson and Wilkins’s discovery of the molecular structure of DNA led to their own Nobel prize in 1962. In both cases, their breakthroughs had effects that reached into every corner of our lives, with profound implications for all of us. This year’s Nobel prizes are another such turning point, that begs the question: where next for humanity?