Tip #177: Read about the link between deep neural nets and ... the universe

Artificial intelligence and deep neural nets are taking over the technology landscape, or so it seems if all you do is read Twitter. Which is not what we do, we swear. The truth is that we have been more and more interested in this technology as time has worn on and large technology organizations begin to embrace it. We were hooked on the AlphaGo matches and mystified by Deep Dream, and all the while one thing bothered us - how the hell does this stuff work so well? We came across an article in the MIT Technology Review, which summarizes the work of two researches in Why does deep and cheap learning work so well? that doesn’t … exactly put a finer point on neural nets. What it does do, however, is help to characterize the depth of the relationship between layered neural nets and our perception of reality, via physics. We swear, we’re not making this stuff up. We can’t claim to fully understand the paper, but you’re our smart friends, right? So, hit us up and let us know what’s going on here! The simple realization at the heart of this observation is extremely intriguing - we hope you’re as fascinated as we are.