DailyDirt: Thinking Machines

It's a source of wonder and excitement for some, panic and concern for others, and a whole lot of cutting edge work for the people actually making it happen: artificial intelligence, the end-game for computing (and, as some would have you believe, humanity). But when you set aside the sci-fi predictions, doomsday warnings and hypothetical extremes, AI is a real thing happening all around us right now - and achieving some pretty impressive feats:

• AlphaGo has already conquered the game many thought a computer never could, but can it master the more "human" game of poker? The statistics it can handle, but what about the behavioural cues? [url]
• Can machines be as creative as humans? Or moreso? There's plenty of reason to believe they are already well on the way. [url]
• This cluster of IBM chips mimics 16-million neurons and 4-billion synapses to provide an insanely fast platform for neural network applications. The Lawrence Livermore National Lab is seeing if it can replace more traditional supercomputers. [url]

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