A new computing approach based on how the biological nervous system works allows computers to learn from their own mistakes is scheduled to be released in 2014, according to The New York Times.
The new approach is now already in use in some large technology companies in which computers absorb new information while performing current tasks, the Times said.
Computers can now tolerate errors and adjust their performance based on changing signals, a feat more traditional computers are not capable of doing. Conventional computers are still limited by data their programmers feed them. For example, computer vision systems only recognize objects depending on the kind of algorithms programmed in them, the report said.
An algorithm refers to the step-by-step rules computers follow to perform a specific function of calculation.
"We're moving from engineering computing systems to something that has many of the characteristics of biological computing," Larry Smarr, an astrophysicist who directs the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, told the Times. The institute is one of many research centers that focus on developing these new kinds of computer circuits, the report said.
According to the report, the new computing approach will allow a new generation of artificial intelligence systems to function more like human beings. They will be able to see, speak, listen, navigate, manipulate and control, the report said.
The new designs in computing technology hold massive consequences not only in the computing field, but in many aspects of social and business life. With the new designs, computers will then become capable of facial and speech recognition, navigation and planning, although these are still in its early stages.
However, designers said that a thinking or conscious computer is still far in the future to materialize.
The new computing approach uses both hardware and software and is inspired by developments in brain science. However, Kwabena Boahen, a Stanford computer scientist who leads the university's Brains in Silicon research program, said that scientists are still limited by completely understanding how the human brain functions.
"We have no clue," Boahen told the Timesd. "I'm an engineer, and I build things. There are these highfalutin theories, but give me one that will let me build something."
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