Searches for ``unknown physics'' are made possible by observing data through a new ``lens'': Traditionally, discoveries of rare processes through particle and astro-particle experiments have relied on our ability to accurately predict new physics phenomena, and to subsequently selectively look for them within the data by using algorithms trained on \textit{predicted} unknowns. In a new era of scientific discovery, driven by unprecedented data statistics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances, we instead may now use AI-powered tools that let the data guide our expectation to selectively identify rare and unpredictable signatures that may lie within the data itself, and which may be signatures of new fundamental physics phenomena in nature.