Two scientists, John J. Hopfield and Geoffrey E. Hinton, were
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on October 8, 2024 for their
work in machine learning, which has provided the building blocks
for advancements in artificial intelligence. Hopfield's work
includes the development of a structure that can store and
reconstruct information while Hinton invented a method that can
independently discover properties in data. These advancements are
important for the large neural networks now being put to use by
prominent Generative AI models, those interconnected computer nodes
inspired by the human brain.
With their work rooted in physics and computer science, Hopfield
and Hinton have revolutionized the way we work and live. This
impact has extended to the practice of law. The legal field was
early to adopt machine learning, having codified more than a decade
ago a set of best practices for using algorithms to determine
relevancy across increasingly large amounts of electronic
