Sorry, how is a background in physics relevant? If someone without such a background does as brilliant physics experiment, that would be prize worthy - because it’s physics. If being trained in the field is what matters, let’s give the prize to Brian May for the great music he made in Queen.

his background in physics is relevant because most of the work he did in AI was just importing mathematics directly from statistical mechanics into AI

Yes! I don’t disagree. This was just re: Sarah’s “they aren’t even physicists” comment, which I feel in Hopfield’s case is not really accurate. But the work: not physics.