DARPA launches massive new '3rd wave' next-gen artificial intelligence

The Pentagon's science and technology research arm is launching a vigorous push into a new level of advanced artificial intelligence, intended to integrate advanced levels of "machine learning," introduce more "adaptive reasoning" and even help computers determine more subjective phenomena. It is called the 3rd Wave, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to leverage rapid advances in AI to help train data to make computer analysis more reliable for human operators, agency Director Steven Walker recently told a small group of reporters. DARPA scientists explain the fast-evolving 3rd wave effort as improving the ability of AI-oriented technology to provide much more sophisticated "contextual explanatory models." While humans will still be needed in many instances, the 3rd Wave can be described as introducing a new ability to not only provide answers and interpretations - but also use "machine learning to reason in context and explain results," DARPA Deputy Director Peter Highnam said. In short, the 3rd Wave can explain the reason "why" it reached the conclusion it reached, something which offers a breakthrough level of computer-human interface, he added.