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Diving Into 3 Key DARPA AI Programs

As one of the Department of Defense’s 14 critical technology areas, artificial intelligence has taken center stage in the organization’s research and development endeavors.

According to Matt Turek, deputy director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Information Innovation Office, approximately 70 percent of the agency’s programs now use AI and machine learning. Its priorities are not just to develop systems for U.S. warfighters, but to prevent “strategic surprise” from adversary AI systems.

Post-silicon nano-electronic device and its application in brain-inspired chips

As information technology is moving toward the era of big data, the traditional Von-Neumann architecture shows limitations in performance. The field of computing has already struggled with the latency and bandwidth required to access memory (“the memory wall”) and energy dissipation (“the power wall”). These challenging issues, such as “the memory bottleneck,” call for significant research investments to develop a new architecture for the next generation of computing systems. Brain-inspired computing is a new computing architecture providing a method of high energy efficiency and high real-time performance for artificial intelligence computing. Brain-inspired neural network system is based on neuron and synapse. The memristive device has been proposed as an artificial synapse for creating neuromorphic computer applications. In this study, post-silicon nano-electronic device and its application in brain-inspired chips are surveyed. First, we introduce the development of neural networks and review the current typical brain-inspired chips, including brain-inspired chips dominated by analog circuit and brain-inspired chips of the full-digital circuit, leading to the design of brain-inspired chips based on post-silicon nano-electronic device. Then, through the analysis of N kinds of post-silicon nano-electronic devices, the research progress of constructing brain-inspired chips using post-silicon nano-electronic device is expounded. Lastly, the future of building brain-inspired chips based on post-silicon nano-electronic device has been prospected.

Keywords: brain-inspired chips; neuron; phase change memory; post-silicon nano-electronic device; resistive memory; synapse.

Copyright © 2022 Lv, Chen, Wang, Li, Xie and Song.

Technological Singularity: AI and Post-Human Era

Technological singularity: a hypothetical event where artificial intelligence (AI) surpasses human capabilities and leads to a transformative cascade of change.

Technological singularity: a hypothetical event where artificial intelligence (AI), pushed by exponential growth in computational power and intelligence, surpasses human capabilities and leads to a transformative cascade of change.

Coined by mathematician John von Neumann and popularized by futurist Ray Kurzweil, the singularity signifies a critical moment in human history—one where the trajectory of civilization takes an unpredictable turn and the boundaries between humans and machines blur. Kurzweil argued that technological progress follows an exponential trajectory and predicted that the singularity would occur around the year 2045, leading to a merging of human and machine intelligence and unprecedented levels of innovation.

How to Defeat Aging? Two Scientists Offer Their Visions

In a much-anticipated debate, prominent aging researchers Aubrey de Grey and Peter Fedichev presented their competing, but also overlapping, theories.

When the non-profits Foresight Institute, Open Longevity, and Say Forever had the idea to hold debates on the best strategy to defeat aging, there was little question about whom they should invite first. Aubrey de Grey, head of LEV Foundation and one of the faces of the longevity field, and Peter Fedichev, CEO of Gero and a rising star in the same field, already had an impromptu debate last year in Zuzalu, the longevity/crypto/AI-themed pop-up city in Montenegro. I had the honor to witness that clash of titans, which kept a small but dedicated crowd on its toes for more than two hours.

The impromptu debate in Zuzalu. Photo: Arkadi Mazin.