Reacción a "Nobel Prize in Physics for Hinton and Hopfield for discovering the basis of machine learning with artificial neural networks"

It is a significant development that the Nobel Prize in Physics recognises achievements in artificial intelligence, a discipline that essentially belongs to the field of Engineering. Given that there is no specific Nobel Prize for Engineering, perhaps it is time to consider creating one, as AI cuts across many fields but is based on engineering fundamentals.

The laureates receive this award for their undisputed contributions to artificial intelligence: Hopfield has pioneered the development of neural networks and Hinton has revolutionised the field with backpropagation, essential for modern Deep Learning. However, it is also important to remember that these advances have been made possible by decades of incremental work by an entire scientific community.

While recognising the merit of the awardees, there is still a notable lack of female representation in these awards. It would be encouraging to see greater diversity in these awards in the future, a challenge still pending not only for the Nobel Prize, but also for other prizes such as the Princess of Asturias, which in 2022 honoured four men as ‘fathers of AI’.