As part of a project named SyNAPSE, IBM announced that it has built prototype chips which mimic human brain function. It appears these are hardware neural network chips with some additional functionality. IBM has stated that these chips were designed based on human brain function with simulated neurons, axons, and synapses.
The chips are still early in development as they have not yet been used for any advanced functionality which a standard computer processor is not capable of. The chips were only used in test cases such as playing pong against a human competitor, navigation tasks, and pattern recognition.
The project appears to have good backing with 21 million in funding from DARPA and obviously good financial support from IBM, one of the largest technology companies.
Check out the project site for some interesting reading and some videos about the project:
I’m sure there will be more interesting news to come from this project as it progresses…
It will be a long while before these neuro-chips can be used in an artificial Mind.
Agreed, I’m always of the mindset that a problem needs to be solved through software before it can be improved or sped up using hardware. So while the chips might be able to do some neat things, I would classify them more as pattern matching chips rather than anything approaching AI.
All that being said, I’d love for IBM to prove me wrong.