Using AI to Make Better AI

Since 2017, AI researchers have been using AI neural networks to help design better and faster AI neural networks. Applying AI in pursuit of better AI has, to date, been a largely academic pursuit--mainly because this approach requires tens of thousands of GPU hours. If that's what it takes, it's likely quicker and simpler to design real-world AI applications with the fallible guidance of educated guesswork. Next month, however, a team of MIT researchers will be presenting a so-called "neural architecture search" algorithm that can speed up the AI-optimized AI design process by 240 times or more. That would put faster and more accurate AI within practical reach for a broad class of image recognition algorithms and other related applications.