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Artificial Intelligence: Programming Computers Through an Understanding of the Human Brain
We have all seen the movies, been barraged by Jude Law, Robin Williams and Rutger Hauer as robots with artificial intelligence. While most of us leave the theatres thinking it will never happen, science is proving us wrong.
As time progresses and we fully become immersed in the 21st century we are closer and closer to not only understanding how the brain works but also how to simulate that type of brain function in a robot.
This past February, Science Daily ran an article about an up-and-coming university project at the Institute for Theoretical Science at Graz University of Technology (IGI) which is seeking to model robotic algorithms after human brain function. What the group is most interested is synaptic plasticity, a phenomenon in the brain that allows it to adapt and change its way of functioning. A computer, on the other hand, will have a set programme that governs how it functions and cannot reprogramme itself as it ‘learns’ a new way of doing something. Thus it becomes impossible for a programme to improve upon its original command criteria.
EU FET Neurobotics has similar interests to the researchers at IGI, developing and studying computer algorithms and adaptability through poker games. This allows researchers the opportunity to better study probabilistic inference, opponent modeling and other emerging fields of research interest.
What has become increasingly obvious is that we are no longer sitting around in massive rooms waiting for a label printing
system to process input information. Computers are becoming smaller, more efficient and ultimately closer in design to the human brain. These innovations are happening across the technology sphere. Microsoft updates its operating systems. Primera digital printers are bringing us closer to label printing perfection and things like voice recognition systems are becoming more sophisticated.
What does this mean for the lay person? Better technology and an emerging field that potentially will change the way we live. Are we in for robotic servants whose adaptive programming allows them to learn better ways to clean our bathrooms? Right now, it is all up in the air and we can only speculate the results of these studies.
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