It's about 25 years ago with something called 4D variational data assimilation.

这大概是25年前的一种叫做四维数据同化的东西。

Variational inference, that math comes from statistical physics.

理，那个数来自计物理。

A lot of these modern learning methods, or VAEs, which are variational autoencoders, you can really explain them very nicely in terms of an energy function that they're trying to minimize or maximize.

许多这些习方法，或者说是自编码器（VAEs），你可以非常巧妙地用它们试图最小化或最大化的能量函数来解释它们。