Somewhere, in a glass building
several miles outside of San Francisco, a computer is imagining what a cow
looks like. Its software is visualizing cows of varying sizes and poses, then
drawing crude digital renderings, not from a collection of photographs, but
rather from the software's ‘imagination’. The technology is the work of
Vicarious FPC Inc. that is part of the rapidly expanding world of artificial
intelligence. The company is weaving together bits of code inspired by the
human brain, aiming to create a machine that can think like humans. Such
powerful software is still several years away from being fully developed, if at
all, and raises all sorts of ethical questions.
But the potential
applications—such as masterfully translating foreign languages, identifying
objects in photos and directing self-driving cars through busy intersections
are investing heavily in artificial intelligence. The idea of creating smarter
computers based on the brain has been around for decades as scientists have
debated the best path to artificial intelligence. The approach has seen a
resurgence in recent years thanks to far superior computing processors and
advances in computer-learning methodologies. One of the most popular
technologies in this area involves software that can train itself to classify
objects as varied as animals, syllables and inanimate objects.
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