The Artificial Brain Vs. Human Brain

Posted: 8/9/2014

Trigger

Just read “IBM Unveils Chip Simulating Brain Functions/Tech Giant Claims Microchip Is a Sharp Break From Traditional Chip Design”. And here is another article. This chip was actually built in collaboration with Samsung Electronics.

The Chip

1. “IBM says the chip, a sharp break from the fundamental design used in most computers, excels at chores like recognizing patterns and classifying objects while using much less electrical power than conventional hardware.”
2. “But its latest offering, described in a paper in the journal Science, has novel features that include its large size and the use of standard digital technology rather than esoteric materials or production processes.”
3. “The chip, dubbed TrueNorth, was built for IBM by Samsung Electronics Co. … using the same manufacturing technology the South Korean company uses to make microprocessors for smartphones and other mobile devices. ”
4. “IBM collaborated on the underlying design with researchers at the New York City campus of Cornell University in a project that has received $53 million in funding since 2008 from the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.”
5. “TrueNorth ... uses 5.4 billion transistors—four times more than a typical PC processor—to yield the equivalent of one million neurons and 256 million synapses. They are organized into 4,096 structures called "neurosynaptic cores," each able to store, process and transmit data to any other using a communications scheme called a crossbar.
6. “The new chip dubbed "TrueNorth" works to mimic the "right brain" functions of sensory processing — responding to sights, smells and information from the environment to "learn" to respond in different situations …”
7. The design is "event-driven," …. means that individual cores fire up only when they are needed, rather than running all the time.
8. This scheme makes the chips more power efficient. Where a comparable standard microprocessor draws 50 to 100 watts per square centimeter, TrueNorth draws just 20 milliwatts ...”

In The Not So Distant Future

There is little doubt in my mind that artificial brains will exceed human brains in almost any conceivable way except for perhaps creativity and happenstance discoveries.

There is also little doubt in my mind that one day (perhaps in the next 25-50 years) the human brain will be completely replaced by an artificial brain.