Neuroscientists Hope To Model A Complete Rat Brain Within Two Years

Lausanne, Switzerland. March 3, 2008 - Composed of 2,000 IBM microchips stacked in repeating rows that can handle 22.8 trillion operations per second, the IBM Blue Brain supercomputer is designed to model a complete rat brain and download it into a robotic rat so that it can develop like a real rat--one with a "mind of its own."

Each microchip inside the Blue Brain has been programmed to act just like a real neuron in a real brain. Henry Markram, the director of the Blue Brain project and neuroscientist at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, wants to use the supercomputer to simulate what the brain of the robotic rat experiences and generate a movie of its reality rooted in the details of its brain.

Markram hopes that the model of the rat brain can be completed within two years. From this research, Markram and his team will be able to move onto simulating more complex brains, eventually leading to an artificial human brain.

Image Courtesy of BBP/EPFL

Taking A.I. To The Next Level

Memphis, Tennessee. March 1-3, 2008 – The FedEx Institute of Technology and the University of Memphis, in cooperation with AAAI, team up to present the First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is a rapidly growing research area focusing on the original and ultimate goal of AI - to create intelligence at the human level and beyond, by exploring all available paths, including computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies.

The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence brings 100 AI researchers, mostly PhD scientists from university and corporate labs, to plot the course of AGI’s future. AGI research is expected to accelerate dramatically in the next few years due to advances in computing technology and cognitive science, as well as allied disciplines such as virtual worlds and neuroscience.

When John McCarthy coined the term “Artificial Intelligence” in 1955, it was AGI that he had in mind. The AI field has made dramatic progress in creating task-oriented intelligent software. Now scientists want to “get back to the deepest questions of AI and general intelligence,” in a renewed attack on the problem of AGI.