Thanks to a 28 million grant, Harvard is heavily researching artificial intelligence

Some of the most intelligent minds in the country are taking a closer look at artificial intelligence, and if the student surpasses the master in this scenario, the world will have some pretty impressive machines on its hands. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a government institution that concerns itself with large-scale research efforts, has awarded a 28 million grant to Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Harvard's Center for Brain Science (CBS), and its Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. The sizable grant to these three departments is meant to help the famed Boston institution develop "advanced machine learning algorithms by pushing the frontiers of neuroscience." The goal of the latest research effort is to better understand the human brain so that machines may emulate our biological capabilities. Today, our minds and our machines each excel at two differing functions -- while humans are able to quickly recognize patterns and learn, machines are far better at processing large amounts of data.