Tag Archives: artificial intelligence

IBM doesn’t call it a brain chip

IBM calls it a neural core, not a ‘brain chip’ or a ‘thinking chip.’ The recently announced development involves two prototype chips that contain circuitry inspired by biological components of the brain – neurons, synapses and axons. The chips are the earliest building blocks of what IBM hopes to develop into a more complete system [...]
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Update: Who’s afraid of Watson?

Not long ago a computer assembled by IBM, named Watson, whupped a couple of good-old-boys and all-time-winners at the game of Jeopardy! This garnered a good deal of attention, mainly with the notion that computers are becoming as smart as people. No, I said, in an essay titled “Who’s afraid of Watson?” [SciTechStory: Who’s afraid [...]
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Who’s afraid of Watson?

And the answer is, “What is Watson?” Even if you know the correct reference (pick from: Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant, a computer, the founder of IBM), which by far most people on this planet do not, it’s unlikely that fear is attached to it. Watson is not a common synonym for boogeyman. However, a few [...]
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The advance of swarm intelligence

Swarm intelligence – where the behavior of many semi-intelligent individuals becomes intelligent in collective activity – think of ants or bees, has been an area of study for some time but on no perceivable schedule or cycle seems to appear in the popular media as a matter of considerable importance. I thought of this while [...]
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Ethical killer drones

The trend in modern warfare, which typically means the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan, is attack your enemies by remote, work with the friendlies up close. Air power, rocketry, and artillery have long been weapons of remote attack; now the arsenal includes drones – flying robotics that do everything except make the decision to [...]
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The Mind Machine Project

Here’s a rant, for your delectation, or distaste: This month (Jan. 2010) MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. USA) kicks off a five year, five-million dollar (at least) research orgy called the Mind Machine Project (MMP). Machine Mind = Artificial intelligence (AI). Now there’s a concept. Oh wait. We tried that, what? Fifty years [...]
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