An AI that mimics our neocortex is taking on the neural networks – and this is how it'll do it

Published by TheRegister on 29/03/14

Jeff Hawkins has bet his reputation, fortune, and entire intellectual life on one idea: that he understands the brain well enough to create machines with an intelligence we recognize as our own.

If his bet is correct, the Palm Pilot inventor will father a new technology, one that becomes the crucible in which a general artificial intelligence is one day forged. If his bet is wrong, then Hawkins will have wasted his life. At 56 years old that might sting a little. Click here for more...

Demis Hassabis: Combining systems neuroscience and machine learning: a new approach to AGI

For the slides click here:
http://chris.ill-logic.com/systems-neuroscience/#slide1

Visualized: a fish brain lights up while on the prowl

Published by Wired on 02/01/13

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SyNAPSE: IBM's brain

Published by BBC on 19/08/11

IBM has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than ever to replicating the human brain. The system is capable of "rewiring" its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way biological synapses work. Researchers believe that that by replicating that feature, the technology could start to learn. Cognitive computers may eventually be used for understanding human behaviour as well as environmental monitoring. Click here for more...

Google and the Machine Age

Published by New York Post on 13/02/11

An excellent article on the advances of Artificial Intelligence:

Dealing with uncertainty turned out to be more important than thinking with logical precision. We think of a clever argument or solution to a problem as one that contains a series of irrefutable logical steps and are impressed when someone can come up with such a sequence. But this is exactly what computers do well. The hard part is dealing with uncertainty, and choosing a good answer from among many possibilities. The fundamental tools of A.I. shifted from Logic to Probability in the late 1980s, and fundamental progress in the theory of uncertain reasoning underlies many of the recent practical advances...

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Blue Brain: A supercomputing project

Published by TED on October 2009

"Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved -- soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they're made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain's 100,000,000,000,000 synapses."

Blind soldier 'sees' with his tongue

Published by The Engineer on 16/03/10

"A British serviceman who lost his sight while serving in Iraq is using the BrainPort vision device in order to ‘see’ with his tongue. The new system — known as the BrainPort vision device — was developed by the Centre for Vision Restoration for the US Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) and is being trialled in the UK by retired Lance Corporal, Craig Lundberg, who served with 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment. Lundberg was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in March 2007 while he was serving in Basra. As a result of the explosion his left eye had to be removed and his right eye was severely damaged, leaving him profoundly blind". Click for more...

How does the brain learn to see?

"Pawan Sinha details his groundbreaking research into how the brain's visual system develops. Sinha and his team provide free vision-restoring treatment to children born blind, and then study how their brains learn to interpret visual data. The work offers insights into neuroscience, engineering and even autism."

[G.K. Comment: Life is like a pyramid. By grouping the small details available at every level of a pyramid, you reach the top. This is called abstraction. The way we learn is like a pyramid and this video proves how it works. Amazing! ]

IBM, EPFL & ETH to build 3D brain-density processors

Published by The Register on 14/12/09

"Boffins in Switzerland have warned that increasingly powerful computer processors are set to guzzle the entire world electricity supply by the year 2100. They say that only 3D myria-core chips can save the day." Click for more...

Is quantum computing the future of image processing?

Published by The Register on 15/12/09

"Google says it has developed a kind of quantum computer capable of identifying objects that appear in digital photos and videos. According to the company, the system outperforms the classical algorithms running across its current network of worldwide data centers. Hartmut Neven, Google technical lead manager for image recognition, recently unveiled the company's ongoing quantum computing work with a post to the company's research blog, saying he was due to demonstrate the technology at last week's Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Vancouver." Click for more...

[Image credit: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast123/lectures/lec17.html]