Kids' brains may hold the secret to building better AI

The mathematician and computer science pioneer Alan Turing hit on a promising direction for artificial intelligence research way back in 1950. "Instead of trying to produce a program to simulate the adult mind," he wrote, "why not rather try to produce one which simulates the child's?" Now AI researchers are finally putting Turing's ideas into action. They're realizing that by paying attention to how children process information, they can pick up valuable lessons about how to create machines that learn. DARPA, the Defense Department's advanced research agency, is embracing this approach.