AI Mirrors The Way Human Brains See In 3D - Liwaiwai

Researchers have discovered characteristics of human 3D vision in a computer vision network only designed to "view" in 2D. The brain detects 3D shape fragments such as bumps, hollows, shafts, and spheres in the beginning stages of object vision--a newly discovered strategy of natural intelligence. The researchers found that same strategy in artificial intelligence networks trained to recognize visual objects. "…I never would have guessed in a million years that you would see the same thing happening in Alexnet, which is only trained to translate 2D photographs into object labels." Their new paper in Current Biology details how neurons in area V4, the first stage specific to the brain's object vision pathway, represent 3D shape fragments, not just the 2D shapes used to study V4 for the last 40 years. The researchers then identified nearly identical responses of artificial neurons, in an early stage (layer 3) of AlexNet, an advanced computer vision network.