IBM's Brain-Like Computers

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk IBM to build brain-like computers IBM has announced it will lead a US government-funded collaboration to make electronic circuits that mimic brains. Mimicking synapses like this one is crucial to the effort Part of a field called "cognitive computing", the research will bring together neurobiologists, computer and materials scientists and psychologists.

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IBM gets DARPA cognitive computing contract

IBM and several university partners have gotten a DARPA grant to work on a cognitive computing project designed to simulate the brain's sensation, action, interaction, perception and cognition abilities. At the same time, the project's leaders will be attempting to recreate the brain's low-power consumption and size.

According to Dharmendra Modha, the manager of IBM's cognitive computing initiative, the idea is for him and his team to try to re-create the brain's perception, cognitive, sensation, interaction, and action abilities, while also simulating its efficient size and low-power consumption.

"The mind has an uncanny ability to integrate information from a variety of sensors, such as sight, hearing, touch, smell and can create categories of time, space and interrelationships effortlessly," said Modha. "There are no computers that can even remotely approach the capabilities of the mind. The mind arises from the wetware of the brain."

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If we succeed, then we will be able to give birth to novel cognitive systems, computing architectures, programming paradigms and numerous practical applications and perhaps to entirely new industries. IBM press release captures it nicely. “The end goal: ubiquitously deployed computers imbued with a new intelligence that can integrate information from a variety of sensors and sources, deal with ambiguity, respond in a context-dependent way, learn over time and carry out pattern recognition to solve difficult problems based on perception, action and cognition in complex, real-world environments.”

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Related:
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | IBM to build brain-like computers
IBM gets DARPA cognitive computing contract | Gaming and Culture - CNET News
Dharmendra S Modha's Cognitive Computing Blog: IBM Awarded DARPA funding via SyNAPSE Program
IBM Press room - 2008-11-20 IBM Seeks to Build the Computer of the Future Based on Insights from the Brain - United States
DailyTech - IBM and US Government Seek to Build Computer Brain as Smart as a Cat
IBM to Build “Thinking” Computers Modeled on the Brain | 80beats | Discover Magazine