A new Columbia University AI program observed physical phenomena and uncovered relevant variables—a necessary precursor to any physics theory. But the variables it discovered were unexpected.

Energy, Mass, Velocity. These three variables make up Einstein's iconic equation E=MC2. Before understanding physics you need to identify relevant variables. Not even Einstein could discover relativity without the concepts of energy, mass, and velocity.This is the question that Columbia Engineering researchers posed to a new artificial intelligence program. The AI program was designed to observe physical phenomena through a video camera and then try to search for the minimal set of fundamental variables that fully describe the observed dynamics. [1]

Figure 1. The Artificial Intelligence Discovers Alternative Physics

Figure 1 shows the scientists started by feeding the system raw video footage of physics phenomena for which they already knew the solution. For example, they fed a video of a swinging double-pendulum known to have exactly four “state variables”—the angle and angular velocity of each of the two arms. After several hours of analysis, the AI outputted its answer: 4.7.

Next, the researchers proceeded to visualize the actual variables that the program identified. Extracting the variables themselves was difficult because the program cannot describe them in any intuitive way that would be understandable to humans. After some investigation, it appeared that two of the variables the program chose loosely corresponded to the angles of the arms, but the other two remain a mystery. [2]

The AI system discovered new ways to describe the universe

Researchers began feeding the computer program videos of systems which scientists don’t know the explicit variable answer. The first video showed an “air dancer” rising and falling in front of a used car lot. The AI program returned eight variables from that video. The program gave the same number of variables after being fed a video of a lava lamp. The program then returned 24 variables after analyzing a video clip of flames from a fireplace loop.

The study found that the number of variables were the same each time the AI program restarted. However, the specific variables were different. This proves that there are alternative ways to describe the universe. [3]

References:

1. https://news.knowledia.com/IN/en/articles/artificial-intelligence-discovers-alternative-physics-9bfac11f27e3953777728a689ea09b600c7748ad
2. https://scitechdaily.com/artificial-intelligence-discovers-alternative-physics/
3. https://www.studyfinds.org/artificial-intelligence-physics/

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), Artificial Intelligence Discovers Alternative Physics, Anatechmaz, pp.136