Discoveries Made By Nobel Prize Laureates In Physics Explained

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two scientists on Tuesday for discoveries that laid the groundwork for the artificial intelligence used by hugely popular tools such as ChatGPT.

British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton, known as a "godfather of AI," and US physicist John Hopfield were given the prize for "discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks," the Nobel jury said.

But what are those, and what does this all mean? Here are some answers.

What are neural networks and machine learning?

Mark van der Wilk, an expert in machine learning at the University of Oxford, told AFP that an artificial neural network is a mathematical construct "loosely inspired" by the human brain.

Our brains have a network of cells called neurons, which respond to outside stimuli -- such as things our eyes have seen or ears have heard -- by sending signals to each other.

When we learn things, some connections between neurons get stronger, while others get weaker.

Unlike traditional computing, which works more like reading a recipe, artificial neural networks roughly mimic this process.

The biological neurons are replaced with simple calculations sometimes called "nodes" -- and the incoming stimuli they learn from is replaced by training data.

The idea is that this could allow the network to learn over time -- hence the term machine learning.

What did Hopfield discover?

But before machines would be able to learn, another human trait was necessary: memory.

Ever struggle to remember a word? Consider the goose. You might cycle through similar words -- goon, good, ghoul -- before striking upon goose.

"If you are given a pattern that's not exactly the thing that you need to remember, you need to fill in the blanks," van der Wilk said.

"That's how you remember a particular memory."

This was the idea behind the "Hopfield network" -- also called "associative memory" -- which the physicist developed back in the early 1980s.

Hopfield's contribution meant that when an artificial neural network is given something that is slightly wrong, it can cycle through previously stored patterns to find the closest match.

This proved a major step forward for AI.

What about Hinton?

In 1985, Hinton revealed his own contribution to the field -- or at least one of them -- called the Boltzmann machine.

Named after 19th century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, the concept introduced an element of randomness.

This randomness was ultimately why today's AI-powered image generators can produce endless variations to the same prompt.

Hinton also showed that the more layers a network has, "the more complex its behaviour can be".

This in turn made it easier to "efficiently learn a desired behaviour," French machine learning researcher Francis Bach told AFP.

What is it used for?

Despite these ideas being in place, many scientists lost interest in the field in the 1990s.

Machine learning required enormously powerful computers capable of handling vast amounts of information. It takes millions of images of dogs for these algorithms to be able to tell a dog from a cat.

So it was not until the 2010s that a wave of breakthroughs "revolutionised everything related to image processing and natural language processing," Bach said.

From reading medical scans to directing self-driving cars, forecasting the weather to creating deepfakes, the uses of AI are now too numerous to count.

But is it really physics?

Hinton had already won the Turing award, which is considered the Nobel for computer science.

But several experts said his was a well-deserved Nobel win in the field of physics, which started science down the road that would lead to AI.

French researcher Damien Querlioz pointed out that these algorithms were originally "inspired by physics, by transposing the concept of energy onto the field of computing".

Van der Wilk said the first Nobel "for the methodological development of AI" acknowledged the contribution of the physics community, as well as the winners.

And while ChatGPT can sometimes make AI seem genuinely creative, it is important to remember the "machine" part of machine learning.

"There is no magic happening here," van der Wilk emphasised.

"Ultimately, everything in AI is multiplications and additions."

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Body Of Former Karnataka MLA's Missing Brother Found In Phalguni River: Cops

The body of younger brother of former Karnataka MLA Mohideen Bava has been found in Phalguni river mouth on Monday after 12 hours of search, police said.

B M Mumtaz Ali (52) was reported missing since Sunday morning and his badly damaged car was found abandoned near the Kulur bridge, they said.

Ali, a prominent businessman and chairman of the Misbah Group of Educational Institutions, is a well-known figure in the local community.

According to police, he left his residence in his vehicle around 3 am on Sunday, roaming around the city before parking near the Kullur Bridge around 5 am.

Alarmed by his last communication, his daughter immediately contacted the local police.

His disappearance prompted a large-scale search operation, with family members, including Bawa, present at the scene, police said.

An FIR had already been registered at Kavoor police station against six accused, including a woman, who had allegedly threatened, blackmailed, and extorted lakhs of rupees from Ali, with demands for even more money.

Confirming the recovery of the body, Mangaluru Police Commissioner Anupam Agarwal told PTI that investigation was ongoing to ascertain the cause of his death.

"We deployed teams of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) and fire department. Around six teams were working continuously to trace the body... This morning, at 6 am, we resumed operation and we found the body around 10.15 am. The body was shifted to hospital for post-mortem and further examination," he told reporters here.

The victim's family alleged that he was subjected to blackmailing since last couple of months. People were threatening him to pay money or his videos would be released, he said.

"As per the information of the family members, there were some sex videos on the basis of which, he was being blackmailed. He paid some Rs 50 lakh in this process. He was further pressurised to pay more money," he said According to him, based on the complaint received by the family members, a case was registered under sections of extortion and other relevant sections. They have named six people, who were part of this gang and were blackmailing him.

"After recovering of body, we have added section of abetment to suicide in this case. We will be taking up further investigation. All the six people named in the FIR are currently on the run. Our teams are searching them and hopefully, we will nab them soon," Agarwal added.

The body was taken to the city's AJ Hospital for post-mortem, police said.

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Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren Hospitalised

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren was hospitalised following blood sugar-related complications, an official said on Sunday.

He was admitted to the Tata Main Hospital in Jamshedpur around 9 pm on Saturday.

He was admitted to the hospital after his blood sugar dipped and he felt dizzy, a close aide of the former CM said.

Tata Main Hospital GM Dr Sudhir Rai told PTI that Champai Soren's condition was stable and improving.

In a post on X, Champai Soren said there was nothing to worry about him.

"Due to health related problems, I will be attending the 'Manjhi Pargana Mahasammelan' organised at veer bhumi Bhognadih today through video conferencing. According to the doctors, there is nothing to worry about. I will soon recover completely and come back among you all," he said.

Champai Soren, 67, joined the BJP in August, alleging "disrespect" and "humiliation" in the JMM.

He was appointed the chief minister on February 2, following Hemant Soren's resignation and subsequent arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

He left the post on July 3, clearing the way for Hemant Soren's return to the chair after being granted bail.

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Agniveer, 24, Killed In Fire Extinguisher Blast During Mock Drill In Rajasthan

A 24-year-old Agniveer died due to an explosion in a fire extinguisher during a mock drill in Rajasthan's Bharatpur, police said Saturday.

During a mock drill in a training camp of Golpura Army Area on Friday, a fire extinguisher exploded and Agniveer Saurabh Pal got injured, DSP Anil Jasoria said.

Pal, a resident of Bhakhara village in Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj, succumbed during treatment at a hospital, he said.

His father Rakesh Pal was informed about the incident and the body was handed over to the family today, the officer said.

Pal had joined the Indian Army under the Agniveer scheme in 2023.

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Delhi Court Orders Hospital To Release Dead Man's Sperm To Parents For Surrogacy

The Delhi High Court on Friday directed Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to release the frozen sperm of a dead man to his parents for the reproduction of a child.

The High Court said that there is no prohibition on posthumous reproduction in Indian law.

Justice Prathiba M Singh issued the direction while disposing of the petition moved by the father of the dead man who sought the release of preserved sperm from the Ganga Ram Hospital.

The High Court said, " As there is no prohibition on posthumous reproduction in Indian law, the sperm can be used for reproduction."

Justice Prathiba M. Singh directed the hospital to release the frozen sperm of his son to him.

She said that it is very common to bring up their grandchildren by the grandparents.

However, the High Court said that the sperm shall not be used for commercial purposes.

In November 2022, the High Court issued notice to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and sought its response to a plea seeking the release of a dead man's sperm from a hospital. The plea was moved by the parents of the man.

The petitioner sought direction for the release of the frozen sperm of their son kept in the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) lab in Delhi's Ganga Ram hospital.

Their son had died of cancer in September 2020. They had approached the hospital but it had refused to release it, stating that there were no instructions from the government. It can release the same in the direction of the court.

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the Delhi government and Ganga Ram Hospital. The hospital had filed a report stating that there are no Assisted Reproductive Technology (ATR) laws related to the release of frozen semen samples to his family.

It was also submitted that the related ICMR guidelines and the Surrogacy Act are also silent on this issue.

While issuing notice to the Centre, the High Court observed that the government's view is important on the matter as the decision of the court would have an impact on the ART (Regulations) Act.

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Trinamool Leader Arrested In RG Kar Hospital Corruption Case: CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested a Trinamool Congress leader and a house-staff attached to R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, Asish Pande, said to be a close confidant of Sandip Ghosh, in connection with the the financial irregularities case pertaining to state-run medical college and hospital that emerged in course of investigation into the rape-murder of a junior doctor.

Mr Pande was also once summoned to the CBI's Salt Lake office earlier and questioned in connection with the matter.

Mr Pande's name first surfaced in the second week of September, when the CBI officials found out that he had put up at a hotel in Salt Lake on the night of August 9, the day when the body of the junior woman doctor who was raped and murdered was discovered at the seminar hall within the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital complex.

He is the fifth person to be arrested by the CBI in connection with the financial irregularities at R.G Kar. Earlier, in September, Ghosh and three others were arrested in the same case.

The other three arrests made in this connection are Afsar Ali, Suman Hazra and Biplab Sinha.

While Ali is the personal bodyguard of Ghosh, Sinha and Hazra are vendors who were looking into the supply of medical equipment to R.G. Kar when Sandip Ghosh was the principal there.

Besides the financial irregularities case, the CBI is also conducting a parallel investigation against Ghosh in the rape and murder case.

A polygraph test of Ghosh was also conducted.

The main charges in the financial irregularities case are tendering of different contracts to private and outsourced parties of his confidence without getting the necessary approval from the state health department and the college council and getting the infrastructure-related tasks of the hospital done by private outsourced entities or individuals instead of following the standard practice of getting them done by the state public works department (PWD).

Another serious charge against Sandip Ghosh is selling biomedical waste from the hospital which is illegal.

There had also been allegations against Ghosh of using the hospital business in earning money through businesses run in the name of others, which is also considered a serious offence on the part of a government official.

The most disturbing charge in the matter is selling organs of unidentified bodies that were brought to the hospital mortuary for post-mortem, at "lucrative prices" outside.

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Iran's Supreme Leader Warned Hezbollah Chief To Flee Before Israeli Strike: Report

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers on Sept. 17, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech the Hezbollah secretary general to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters.

The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.

Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location inside Iran since Saturday, personally ordered a barrage of around 200 missiles to be fired at Israel on Tuesday, a senior Iranian official said. The attack was retaliation for the deaths of Nasrallah and Nilforoushan, the Revolutionary Guards said in a statement.

The statement also cited the July killing of Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Israel's attacks on Lebanon. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death.

Israel on Tuesday began what it labelled as a "limited" ground incursion against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Iran's foreign ministry and the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which oversees the country's foreign intelligence agency Mossad, did not reply to requests for comment.

Nasrallah's assassination followed two weeks of precise Israeli strikes that have destroyed weapons sites, eliminated half of Hezbollah's leadership council and decimated its top military command.

Iran's fears for the safety of Khamenei and the loss of trust, within both Hezbollah and Iran's establishment and between them, emerged in the conversations with 10 sources for this story, who described a situation that could complicate the effective functioning of Iran's Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israel irregular armed groups.

Founded with Iran's backing the 1980s, Hezbollah has long been the most formidable member of the alliance.

The disarray is also making it hard for Hezbollah to choose a new leader, fearing the ongoing infiltration will put the successor at risk, four Lebanese sources said.

"Basically, Iran lost the biggest investment it had for the past decades," said Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert at the Swedish Defense University, of the deep damage caused to Hezbollah that he said diminished Iran's capacity to strike at Israel's borders.

"It shook Iran to the core. It shows how Iran is deeply infiltrated also: they not only killed Nasrallah, they killed Nilforoushan," he said, who was a trusted military adviser to Khamenei.

Hezbollah's lost military capacity and leadership cadre might push Iran towards the type of attacks against Israeli embassies and personnel abroad that it engaged in more frequently before the rise of its proxy forces, Ranstorp said.

IRAN MAKES ARRESTS

Nasrallah's death has prompted Iranian authorities to thoroughly investigate possible infiltrations within Iran's own ranks, from the powerful Revolutionary Guards to senior security officials, a second senior Iranian official said. They are especially focused on those who travel abroad or have relatives living outside Iran, the first official said.

Tehran grew suspicious of certain members of the Guards who had been traveling to Lebanon, he said. Concerns were raised when one of these individuals began asking about Nasrallah's whereabouts, particularly inquiring about how long he would remain in specific locations, the official added.

The individual has been arrested along with several others, the first official said, after alarm was raised in Iran's intelligence circles. The suspect's family had relocated outside Iran, the official said, without identifying the suspect or his relatives.

The second official said the assassination has spread mistrust between Tehran and Hezbollah, and within Hezbollah.

"The trust that held everything together has disappeared," the official said.

The Supreme Leader "no longer trusts anyone," said a third source who is close to Iran's establishment.

Alarm bells had already rung within Tehran and Hezbollah about possible Mossad infiltrations after the killing in July of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an Israeli airstrike on a secretive Beirut location while meeting an IRGC commander, two Hezbollah sources and a Lebanese security official told Reuters at the time. That killing was followed a few hours later by the assassination of Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran.

Unlike Haniyeh's death, Israel publicly claimed responsibility for the killing of Shukr, a low-profile figure who Nasrallah nonetheless described, at his funeral, as a central figure in Hezbollah's history who had built its most important capabilities.

Shukr was key to the development of Hezbollah's most advanced weaponary, including precision-guided missiles, and was in charge of the Shi'ite groups operations against Israel over the past year, Israel's military has said.

Iranian fears about Israeli penetration of its upper ranks stretches back years. In 2021, former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the head of an Iranian intelligence unit that was supposed to target agents of Mossad had himself been an agent for the Israeli spy agency, telling CNN Turk that Israel obtained sensitive documents on Iran's nuclear programme, a reference to a 2018 raid in which Israel obtained a huge trove of top secret documents about the programme.

Also in 2021, Israel's outgoing spy chief Yossi Cohen gave details about the raid, telling the BBC that 20 non-Israeli Mossad agents were involved in stealing the archive from a warehouse.

PAGER WARNING

Khamenei's invitation to Nasrallah to relocate to Iran came after thousands of pagers and walkie talkies used by Hezbollah blew up in deadly attacks on Sept 17 and 18, the first official said. The attacks have been widely attributed to Israel, although it has not officially claimed responsibility.

Nasrallah, however, was confident in his security and trusted his inner circle completely, the official said, despite Tehran's serious concerns about potential infiltrators within Hezbollah's ranks.

Khamenei tried a second time, relaying another message through Nilforoushan to Nasrallah last week, imploring him to leave Lebanon and relocate to Iran as a safer location. But Nasrallah insisted on staying in Lebanon, the official said.

Several high-level meetings were held in Tehran following the pager blasts to discuss Hezbollah and Nasrallah's safety, the official said, but declined to say who attended those meetings.

Simultaneously, in Lebanon, Hezbollah began conducting a major investigation to purge Israeli spies among them, questioning hundreds of members after the pager detonations, three sources in Lebanon told Reuters.

Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, a senior Hezbollah official, was leading the investigation, a Hezbollah source said. The probe was progressing rapidly, the source said, before an Israeli raid killed him a day after Nasrallah's assassination. Another raid earlier last week had targeted other senior Hezbollah commanders, some of who were involved in the inquiry.

Kaouk had summoned for questioning Hezbollah officials involved in logistics and others "who participated, mediated and received offers on pagers and walkie-talkies," the source said.

A "deeper and comprehensive inquiry" and purge were now needed after the killing of Nasrallah and other commanders, the source said.

Ali al-Amin, the editor-in-chief for Janoubia, a news site based that focuses on the Shi'ite community and Hezbollah said reports indicated that Hezbollah detained hundreds of people for questioning after the pagers saga.

Hezbollah is reeling from Nasrallah's killing in his deep bunker in a command HQ, shocked at how successfully Israel penetrated the group, seven sources said.

Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy research director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut with a focus on Iran and Hezbollah, described the offensive as "the biggest intelligence infiltration by Israel" since Hezbollah was founded with Iran's backing in the 1980s.

The current Israeli escalation follows almost a year of cross-border fighting after Hezbollah began rocket attacks in support of its ally Hamas. The Palestinian group killed 1,200 people and seized 250 hostages in an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli tallies.

In Gaza, Israel's retaliation has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry.

LOSS OF TRUST

The Israeli offensive and fear of more attacks on Hezbollah have also prevented the Iranian-backed group from organizing a nationwide funeral on a scale reflecting Nasrallah's religious and leadership status, according to four sources familiar with the debate within Hezbollah.

"No one can authorize a funeral in these circumstances," one Hezbollah source said, lamenting the situation in which officials and religious leaders could not come forward to properly honor the late leader.

Several commanders killed last week were buried discreetly on Monday, with plans for a proper religious ceremony when the conflict ends.

Hezbollah is mulling the option of securing a religious decree to bury Nasrallah temporarily and hold an official funeral when the situation permits, the four Lebanese sources said.

Hezbollah has refrained from officially appointing a successor to Nasrallah, possibly to avoid making his replacement a target for an Israeli assassination, they said.

"Appointing a new Secretary General could be dangerous if Israel assassinates him right after," said Amin. "The group can't risk more chaos by appointing someone only to see them killed."

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