Nobel laureate Halzen: it was AI that let IceCube see the Milky Way's neutrino sky for the first time

## Nobel laureate Halzen: AI let IceCube see the Milky Way's neutrino sky Francis Halzen, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, looked back after the award and said the IceCube neutrino observatory solved "a very interesting problem for AI", with AI playing a pioneering role. **Key points** - **A counterintuitive finding**: To the naked eye, the night sky shows the Milky Way; but in the neutrino sky, what one sees are other galaxies, while the Milky Way is "invisible". - **AI's key role**: Halzen said, "It was precisely by using neural networks and machine learning that we finally began to see the Galaxy in the data, and to extract it convincingly." Without AI, this Milky Way neutrino signal would still be buried in noise. - **A defense of basic research**: In an era when applied technology dominates research funding, Halzen sees this Nobel Prize as "a clear recognition of the importance of basic research": understanding nature and origins has value in itself. - **A light moment**: Asked about his childhood dream, the Belgian laureate joked that as a boy he wanted to win the Tour de France. > Source: [read the original](https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nobel-physics-winner-pride-ai.html). This text is a summary for reference only.