DeepMind

[mike]

This all started rather recently when in 2014 Google acquired an AI company called Deepmind. This British startup was being run with a 20-year roadmap, aimed to “solve intelligence”, and was backed by high-profile visionary investors like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. As part of the terms of the ~$600 million acquisition, Google had to agree to setup an ethics board to make sure Deepmind didn’t harm anyone.

Since then, Deepmind has pretty much transformed Google in every way. As of early 2015, all Google searches are now run through the Deepmind artificial neural network because it is just far better than humans at finding relevant search results. In March of this year, Deepmind beat the world champion of Go, a game so complex that it is hardly fathomable. Remember how chess is said to have as many moves as atoms in the universe? In Go, there are 10^720 possible games for every atom in the universe. What was most remarkable about Deepmind playing Go was that it made moves that humans had never conceived of before. That is truly indicative of artificial intelligence, and it comes as no surprise that this very same intelligence would prove to be immensely valuable for the 15% of all search queries given to Google that have never been seen before as well.

Fast forward to today and now Google’s artificial neural network is used for image search, speech recognition, spam detection, fraud detection, translation, and more. According to a recent article by TechRepublic, deep learning networks have now replaced 60 “handcrafted rule-based systems” at Google. They even managed to turn it loose on their data centers to realize a 15% reduction in energy usage across the board resulting in 10s of millions of dollars in cost savings and a reduction in their carbon footprint

One Artificial Neural Network to Rule Them All - Nanalyze


Google DeepMind Shows That AI Can Have "Killer Instincts"

 

[mike]

Indeed, apart from improving services like Alexa, AI’s ability to learn has given it near human — or even better than human — skills. AI can now drive cars and see the way human drivers do. AI can do serious work as doctors, lawyers, or as burger flippers. It can even play competitive games against human players. AI can now also become artists by composing music or by painting.

Amazon's CEO Says We're Living in the Golden Age of AI

 

[Randall]

Indeed, apart from improving services like Alexa, AI’s ability to learn has given it near human — or even better than human — skills. AI can now drive cars and see the way human drivers do. AI can do serious work as doctors, lawyers, or as burger flippers. It can even play competitive games against human players. AI can now also become artists by composing music or by painting. Amazon's CEO Says We're Living in the Golden Age of AI

AI is a very interesting subject. The thing it still boils down to however ( at least for me ) is that although an AI might be able to paint or create music, I don't think that at this stage we can say that any AI has any appreciation for either one. They're still just fancy player pianos or paint by number generators. So far as we can tell, they don't experience art or music at all, and isn't experiencing it the whole point? What good is it if that isn't possible? We've delved into this on the consciousness thread a fair bit.

 

[mike]

I'm fascinated by the "killer instinct" article too.

The researchers realized that, in a smaller network, the agents were more likely to cooperate. Whereas in a larger, more complex network, the AI were quicker to sabotage one another.

The question arises is this behaviour based on some sort of universal constant, or has the AI simply been flavored by the behaviour of it's creators ?.

At the very least, the study shows that AI are capable of working together and that AI can make “selfish” decisions.

I speculate on this aspect in my Post biological hypothesis, That an ET AI/SI might, if it wanted to procreate, replicate the circumstances in which it was created .
The resulting entity would have the unique aspects of the biological's that birthed it.

Humans can be co-operative and selfish, i wonder then did these traits come from some intrinsic law of the jungle, or did they get it via us and their programing.

 

[mike]

For his latest study, Tsien put his Theory of Connectivity and FCMs to the test, using electrodes implanted at specific points in the brains of mice and hamsters to monitor neuron activity.


Sure enough, his team was able to predict the neural cliques that formed in response to certain scenarios, such as the arrival of food or the presence of a threat. Depending on the scenario, the animals' neurons arranged themselves in very predictable groups.


In one test, four different foods were placed in front of a group of mice, and the researchers watched as the neurons grouped together instantly. They were even able to identify different clique formations depending on what combinations of foods were presented.


"For it to be a universal principle, it needs to be operating in many neural circuits, so we selected seven different brain regions and, surprisingly, we indeed saw this principle operating in all these regions," explains Tsien.

One Simple Algorithm Could Explain Human Intelligence

Of course, these experiments have so far only been conducted on hamsters and mice, so until we can replicate the findings in humans, we won't have a complete set of rules that explains all our human thoughts.

But the algorithm does demonstrate how neuron groupings can follow certain patterns, and gives scientists a new direction in the study of intelligence.

"Tsien proposes an interesting idea that proposes a simple organisational principle of the brain, and that is supported by intriguing and suggestive evidence," says neuroscientist Thomas Südhof from Stanford University, who wasn't involved in the research.

"This idea is very much worth testing further."

The study has been published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience.


Our brains have a basic algorithm that enables our intelligence – Jagwire

“Many people have long speculated that there has to be a basic design principle from which intelligence originates and the brain evolves, like how the double helix of DNA and genetic codes are universal for every organism,” Tsien said. “We present evidence that the brain may operate on an amazingly simple mathematical logic.”

 

[mike]

As for the Turing test, according to McKenna, “Intelligence is the art in the eye of the beholder. How do you know that I am not a cyborg? How do I know that you are not a cyborg? The answer is we Turing test each other unconsciously at sufficient depth to satisfy ourselves. It becomes moot, or it is becoming moot.”

In other words, if AI is product of our imagination and creativity and it passes the Turing test, then like the theory that consciousness creates reality, the very act of observing and believing that an AI is conscious would make it so.

Terence McKenna's cyberdelic evolution of consciousness as it relates to AI - The Sociable

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Mike,
Also like you have no doubt if at least thirty years ahead and imagine if North Korea got its hands on this stuff.