artificial intelligence
Science
Rat Brain Simulator Calls IBM’s Cat Brain Simulation Bogus
9:35AM Jason Chen | The cat brain simulation IBM supposedly pulled off has just been called out as a “PR stunt” by the leader of the Blue Brain project, who says that it’s all a “mass deception of the public.” More »
Hardware
It Takes 147,456 PowerPC Processors To Out-Think A Cat
4:01AM John Herrman | Also on IBM’s cat-sized-brain-simulation materials list: 143 terabytes of RAM, miles and miles of cabling, a million watts of electricity, 6675 tons of air-conditioning equipment and an acre of floor space. More »
Science
How Much Power Does It Take To Simulate The Human Brain?
6:40AM Sean Fallon | Kwabena Boahen, a computer scientist at Stanford University, believes that it would require 10 megawatts to power a processor as smart as the human brain. His new “Neurogrid” supercomputer might be able to do it on only 20 watts. More »
Robots
Asimo Autonomously Navigates Moving Obstacle Course
3:00AM Jack Loftus | Asimo, still licking its wounds after being outrun by Toyota, fired back earlier this month at Carnegie Mellon, where it learned how to navigate complex, moving obstacle courses. Seriously impressive stuff in this video—just wait until things start spinning! More »
Robots
Specter Of Deadly A.I. Looms In Wake Of Invite-Only Asilomar Conf
4:00AM Jack Loftus | Science fiction is great fun, but should we really be quaking in our boots over dangerous A.I. anytime soon? A growing number of scientists say yes, and the results of their February discussion at Asilomar are finally being made public. More »
Robots
Ossur Power Knee Prosthesis Features AI-Driven Motor
9:00AM Mark Wilson | The latest Ossur Power Knee is just a prosthesis, but it more closely resembles a robot than any artificial limb. More »
Robots
Swarm-bots Converge On Child, Rescue Her From Freaky Parents
11:40PM Mark Wilson | The collective power of many little robots could do a lot of good for the world. But for now, it just pulls little children across the floor in a freaky way. More »
Vehicles
Stanford’s UAV Helicopters Learn to Fly Themselves by Watching
7:20PM Kit Eaton | They may not look as mean as the Draganfly, but these research UAV ‘copters are one step closer to Skynet: they learn to fly complex stunts by just “watching” another aircraft do the same. Dubbed “apprenticeship learning,” by the Stanford team which developed it, the system gets its flight plan by recording an expert human operator fly a vehicle. Then its onboard gyros and GPS systems and avionics communicate with a ground-based computer which looks at the human-derived data and decides how to fly the vehicle. It’s all very tricky, due to the inherent instability of helicopter. Apparently UAVs like this may one day help firefighters track wildfires, or be sent to see out landmines in battlefield situations… and do other “spying” of course. Creepy. [Physorg] More »
Robots
