Scientists at Harvard University secured a $28 million grant to build a robot that will have a smarter A.I. system that is comparable to the human brain. The technology would largely be based on creating a computer system that can mimic the human brain.
The challenge in building the humanoid machine rests on the capability to quickly recognize patterns. Human brains can do this process with great ease, whereas the most advanced A.I. technology today could only manage this through an arduous training that requires several thousands of pattern showings, the Daily Mail reported. To address this, the researchers at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) are conducting experiments on human and mammal brain activities to map connections, according to an official statement.
"This is a moonshot challenge, akin to the Human Genome Project in scope," said David Cox, a Harvard professor and the project's team leader. "As we figure out the fundamental principles governing how the brain learns, it's not hard to imagine that we'll eventually be able to design computer systems that can match, or even outperform, humans."
A robotic A.I. capable of functioning like the human brain, particularly with respect to the speed in potting and understanding patterns, is seen to be useful in detecting network invasions, reading MRI images and fulfilling tasks such as driving a car. In addition, the expected research output could also inform future robotic research, specifically in the development of visual and navigational technology.
"This project is not only pushing the boundaries of brain science, it is also pushing the boundaries of what is possible in computer science," said Hanspeter Pfister, a member of the A.I. research team. "We will reconstruct neural circuits at an unprecedented scale from petabytes of structural and functional data. This requires us to make new advances in data management, high-performance computing, computer vision, and network analysis."
At this stage, it is not yet clear whether the robotic system being developed could pass tests for human brains or the test that is specifically designed to evaluate robotic creativity.
