NASA scientists completed field tests in November of a floating rover they hope will one day travel to Europa, the frozen ocean moon of Jupiter.
At the start of a new decade, one of IBM’s top researchers thinks artificial intelligence needs to change. Welcome to the world of neuro-symbolic A.I., a fresh approach that could keep advances coming for long into the 2020s. Here’s how it works — and why it could be so important.
Experiments in rodents have revealed that engrams exist as multiscale networks of neurons. An experience becomes stored as a potentially retrievable memory in the brain when excited neurons in a brain region such as the hippocampus or amygdala become recruited into a local ensemble. These ensembles combine with others in other regions, such as the cortex, into an “engram complex.” Crucial to this process of linking engram cells is the ability of neurons to forge new circuit connections, via processes known as “synaptic plasticity” and “dendritic spine formation.” Importantly, experiments show that the memory initially stored across an engram complex can be retrieved by its reactivation but may also persist “silently” even when memories cannot be naturally recalled, for instance in mouse models used to study memory disorders such as early stage Alzheimer’s disease.
“More than 100 years ago Semon put forth a law of engraphy,” wrote Josselyn, Senior Scientist at SickKids, Professor of Psychology and Physiology at the University of Toronto and Senior Fellow in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, (CIFAR) and Tonegawa, Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at the RIKEN-MIT Laboratory for Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Combining these theoretical ideas with the new tools that allow researchers to image and manipulate engrams at the level of cell ensembles facilitated many important insights into memory function.”
“For instance, evidence indicates that both increased intrinsic excitability and synaptic plasticity work hand in hand to form engrams and that these processes may also be important in memory linking, memory retrieval, and memory consolidation.”
Continue reading “Engrams emerging as the basic unit of memory” »
Branka Marijan of Project Ploughshares has a short video update on The Campaign To Stop Killer Robots.
This week, our Wednesday office update features Program Officer Branka Marijan. Branka just got back from Geneva, where the discussion of Autonomous Weapons continued! Here’s an update on the conversation.
If you’re interested in mind uploading, I have a book that I highly recommend. Rethinking Consciousness is a book by Michael S. A. Graziano, who is a Princeton University professor of psychology and neuroscience.
Early in his book Graziano writes a short summary:
“This book, however, is written entirely for the general reader. In it, I attempt to spell out, as simply and clearly as possible, a promising scientific theory of consciousness — one that can apply equally to biological brains and artificial machines.”
Continue reading “Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience” »
“Brain activity synchronizes with sound waves, even without audible sound, through lip-reading, according to new research published in JNeurosci.”
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_re…/2020–01/sfn-htl010220.php
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“Finally, Artifical [sic] Intelligence that will make you wonder which one of you is real,” reads one of Kapur’s recent tweets, with another urging CES visitors to stop by the NEON corner to learn more about “an Artificial Intelligence being as your best friend.”
Not Bixby
One thing Samsung will say about NEON is that it is not related to the company’s AI-powered digital assistant Bixby.
If you drive along the main northern road through South Australia with a good set of binoculars, you may soon be able to catch a glimpse of a strange, windowless jet, one that is about to embark on its maiden flight. It’s a prototype of the next big thing in aerial combat: a self-piloted warplane designed to work together with human-piloted aircraft.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and Boeing Australia are building this fighterlike plane for possible operational use in the mid-2020s. Trials are set to start this year, and although the RAAF won’t confirm the exact location, the quiet electromagnetic environment, size, and remoteness of the Woomera Prohibited Area make it a likely candidate. Named for ancient Aboriginal spear throwers, Woomera spans an area bigger than North Korea, making it the largest weapons-testing range on the planet.
The autonomous plane, formally called the Airpower Teaming System but often known as “Loyal Wingman,” is 11 meters (38 feet) long and clean cut, with sharp angles offset by soft curves. The look is quietly aggressive.
Happy New Year! 2019 has seen a number of milestones for Agility, including the final deliveries of Cassie and the launch of Digit. To celebrate, we’ve compiled a supercut of (mostly) never-before-seen testing footage. Here’s hoping 2020 is as robotastic as its predecessor — a big thanks to all of our employees for their hard work.
If you drive along the main northern road through South Australia with a good set of binoculars, you may soon be able to catch a glimpse of a strange, windowless jet, one that is about to embark on its maiden flight. It’s a prototype of the next big thing in aerial combat: a self-piloted warplane designed to work together with human-piloted aircraft.
