Geoffrey Hinton is one of the creators of Deep Learning, a 2019 winner of the Turing Award, and an engineering fellow at Google. Last week, at the company's I/O developer conference, we discussed his early fascination with the brain, and the possibility that computers could be modeled after its neural structure--an idea long dismissed by other scholars as foolhardy. We also discussed consciousness, his future plans, and whether computers should be taught to dream. The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Nicholas Thompson: Let's start when you write some of your early, very influential papers. Everybody says, "This is a smart idea, but we're not actually going to be able to design computers this way." Explain why you persisted and why you were so confident that you had found something important. Geoffrey Hinton: It seemed to me there's no other way the brain could work. It has to work by learning the strength of connections. And if you want to make a device do something intelligent, you've got two options: You can program it, or it can learn. And people certainly weren't programmed, so we had to learn. This had to be the right way to go. NT: Explain what neural networks are. GH: You have relatively simple processing elements that are very loosely models of neurons. They have connections coming in, each connection has a weight on it, and that weight can be changed through learning. And what a neuron does is take the activities on the connections times the weights, adds them all up, and then decides whether to send an output.

The Special Operations Command plans to apply artificial intelligence into its operations to help the U.S. stay ahead of Russia, China and other …

East Japan Railway Co. on Wednesday showed the media a test trial of two artificial intelligence robots designed to guide passengers at Tokyo Station. The robots -- Pepper of SoftBank Robotics Corp. and SEMMI of German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG -- were deployed at an information desk in a shopping and dining center called Gransta on the basement floor of the station. Visitors can ask for directions to stores and restaurants in the facility in languages including Japanese, English and Chinese, JR East said. The trial, which began Monday and will last through May 31, comes as part of a technological exchange between JR East and Deutsche Bahn that began in 1992. They will look at the machines' capabilities and visitors' reactions to their appearance.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono plans to ask overseas media outlets to write the names of Japanese people with the family name first, as is customary in the Japanese language. If realized, the new policy would mark a major shift in the country's long-running practice for handling Japanese names in foreign languages -- which began in the 19th to early 20th centuries amid the growing influence of Western culture. At a news conference Tuesday, Kono said that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's name should be written as "Abe Shinzo," in line with other Asian leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Now is the right time to make the change, given that the Reiwa Era has just begun and several major events -- including next month's Group of 20 summit and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics -- are approaching, Kono said. "I plan to ask international media organizations to do this. Domestic media outlets that have English services should consider it, too," he said, citing a report released in 2000 by the education ministry's National Language Council that said it was desirable to write Japanese names with the family name first in all instances.

In a recent pilot study, researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have shown that a powerful artificial intelligence (AI) platform known as CURATE.AI could potentially be used to customise training regimens for individuals to personalise learning and improve cognitive performance. Using performance data from a given person, CURATE.AI creates an individualised profile that enables cognitive training to be tailored to the individual's learning habits and competencies so as to enhance training effectiveness. Such dynamic AI-guided personalisation overcomes the current limited improvement produced by using traditional training methods which often involve repetitive behavioural exercises. The results of the study provide evidence that the CURATE.AI platform has the potential to enhance learning, and paves the way for promising applications for personalised digital therapy, including the prevention of cognitive decline. The research, led by Professor Dean Ho and Assistant Professor Christopher L. Asplund from the N.1 Institute for Health (N.1) of NUS, which was formerly the Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE), was published in the journal Advanced Therapeutics on 22 May 2019.

U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) today proposed the Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act, legislation to pump $2.2 billion into federal research and development and create a national AI strategy. The $2.2 billion would be doled out over the course of the next 5 years to federal agencies like the Department of Energy, Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and others. The legislation would establish a National AI Coordination Office to lead federal AI efforts, require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the effects of AI on society and education, and allocate $40 million a year to NIST to create AI evaluation standards. The bill would also include $20 million a year from 2020-2024 to fund the creation of 5 multidisciplinary AI research centers, with one focused solely on K-12 education. Plans to open national AI centers in the bill closely resembles plans from the 20-year AI research program proposed by the Computing Consortium.

Microsoft's latest breakthrough could make DNA-based data centers possible

The explosion of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) is dramatically changing the way businesses operate today. As businesses collect more and more data, the need for solutions to drive true value from that data grows in importance. AI, in conjunction with big data and analytics, can deliver that baseline value and go beyond traditional solutions to find deeper insights. In India, banks are fast moving in this direction and deploying AI-powered chatbots for their operations to gain better insights into their customers' usage patterns, offer customised products, help in detecting fraudulent transactions and improving operational efficiency amongst others. There is no denying that AI helps banks nurture their relationships through better interactions with their customers however, not without challenges.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has labeled Joe Biden a "fool of low IQ" and an "imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being" after the Democratic presidential hopeful during a recent speech called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a tyrant. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday accused Biden of insulting the country's supreme leadership and committing an "intolerable and serious politically-motivated provocation" against the North. Biden during a campaign launch in Philadelphia on Saturday accused President Donald Trump of cozying up to "dictators and tyrants" like Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Drones and self-driving cars may soon come with'spidey' senses. That's according to engineers in America, who believe the unmanned machines would benefit from sensory detectors similar to those often seen in arachinds. Specifically, they're referring the hairs on a spider's legs, which are linked to special neurons called mechanoreceptors, which flag-up danger through vibrations. If machines had similar characteristics, they'd be able to navigate more effectively in dangerous environments. Until now, sensor technology hasn't always been able to process data fast enough, or as smoothly, as nature.