Computer Chips That Work Like a Brain Are Coming -- Just Not Yet

Google is building its very own artificial brain using tens of thousands of computers, hoping to improve stuff like voice and image search. And Facebook has followed suit, aiming to solve its big data problems with help from the principles of neuroscience. There's even an open source framework for building software applications based on brains. Although mimicking the structure of the brain was one of the original techniques researchers experimented with when trying to create machine intelligence in the 50s and 60s, the idea -- called neural networking -- eventually fell out of favor. But now it's back with a vengeance, and it might just change the way computer hardware is designed.