Artificial intelligence that mimics the human brain could result in smarter, more efficient computers, experts say. Nara Logics' new AI engine uses recent discoveries in neuroscience to replicate brain structure and function. The research is part of a decades-long quest to make computers that can "think" as well as or better than humans. Simulating brain function is one promising approach. "There are obvious benefits to copying what seems to work in biology and implementing them in machines to aid automated decision making in a broad spectrum of daily activities," Stephen T.C. Wong, a computer science professor at Houston Methodist Research Institute, said in an email interview. The uses for humanlike AI could range "from playing chess, recognizing faces, and trading stocks to making a medical diagnosis, driving autonomous vehicles, and engaging business negotiations or even legal litigation," he added.

Now the startup Nara Logics, co-founded by an MIT alumnus, is trying to take artificial intelligence to the next level by more closely mimicking the brain. The company's AI engine uses recent discoveries in neuroscience to replicate brain structure and function at the circuit level. The result is an AI platform that holds a number of advantages over traditional neural network-based systems. While other systems use meticulously tuned, fixed algorithms, users can interact with Nara Logics' platform, changing variables and goals to further explore their data. The platform can also begin working without labeled training data and can incorporate new datasets as they become available.

For all the progress that's been made in the field of artificial intelligence, the world's most flexible, efficient information processor remains the human brain. Although we can quickly make decisions based on incomplete and changing information, many of today's artificial intelligence systems only work after being trained on well-labeled data, and when new information is available, a complete retraining is often required to incorporate it. Now the startup Nara Logics, co-founded by an MIT alumnus, is trying to take artificial intelligence to the next level by more closely mimicking the brain. The company's AI engine uses recent discoveries in neuroscience to replicate brain structure and function at the circuit level. The result is an AI platform that holds a number of advantages over traditional neural network-based systems.

Even if there has been a lot of development in artificial intelligence, the human brain is the most complex and dynamic knowledge processing to date. There is a significant lag time-period when new and accurate knowledge becomes accessible and when used artificial intelligence systems are updated. Still, it is not needed for newly generated and newly built artificial intelligence systems to be retrained. Now, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company Nara Logics, which a 2010 MIT graduate created, is working to advance artificial intelligence by focusing on the functionality of the brain. New developments in neuroscience are used in artificial intelligence to imitate the circuit work and simulate it correctly.

For all the progress that's been made in the field of artificial intelligence, the world's most flexible, efficient information processor remains the human brain. Although we can quickly make decisions based on incomplete and changing information, many of today's artificial intelligence systems only work after being trained on well-labeled data, and when new information is available, a complete retraining is often required to incorporate it. Now the startup Nara Logics, co-founded by an MIT alumnus, is trying to take artificial intelligence to the next level by more closely mimicking the brain. The company's AI engine uses recent discoveries in neuroscience to replicate brain structure and function at the circuit level. The result is an AI platform that holds a number of advantages over traditional neural network-based systems.

For all the progress that's been made in the field of artificial intelligence, the world's most flexible, efficient information processor remains the human brain. Although we can quickly make decisions based on incomplete and changing information, many of today's artificial intelligence systems only work after being trained on well-labeled data, and when new information is available, a complete retraining is often required to incorporate it. Now the startup Nara Logics, co-founded by an MIT alumnus, is trying to take artificial intelligence to the next level by more closely mimicking the brain. The company's AI engine uses recent discoveries in neuroscience to replicate brain structure and function at the circuit level. The result is an AI platform that holds a number of advantages over traditional neural network-based systems.

Olay, the popular skin care brand, started using AI to make recommendations to its millions of users almost two years ago, and says it has doubled the company's sales conversion rate overall. It's just the latest retail company that has turned to AI to boost its engagement with users to increase its top line. The traction confirms surveys that show an increasing number of businesses are putting AI investments at the head of their agenda. True, Olay has an advantage over most companies. The billion-dollar brand is owned by giant Procter & Gamble, and has been using AI in its core product for some time.

Most examples of artificial intelligence in the enterprise today are just on the fringe of what's possible with the technology in the future, according to a group of 10 industry thought leaders who met in New York City on Monday as part of the latest edition of Think Tank by Adobe. Kathryn Hume, VP of product and strategy at Integrate.ai, offered some early perspective by saying that AI is not a new concept. In fact, the exploration of AI has been going on for well over 50 years. "We are swimming in data," Hume said. "There's a tremendous amount of it, and we are seeing an increase in the importance of the machine-learning algorithm. However, we're still in the early days of a true AI revolution, with many questions yet to be answered around what the tech is and is not, according to Susan Etlinger, an industry analyst at Altimeter Group, who also moderated the panel. AI Today AI's impact in the enterprise today is twofold. The first is AI-powered analytics systems built using data and algorithms, and whose decision-making gets better over time. These systems enable organizations to collect, store, and process data at scale, which, in turn, helps them make informed decisions for the future, Hume said. AI also is helping organizations become more efficient with its ability to "sense, think, and act to achieve a set of objectives," said Anand Rao, partner and global AI and innovation lead at PwC. He pointed to natural language processing, the ability to identify and classify objects, reasoning, problem solving, planning, and even simulating as examples of capabilities. "We as humanity are having this awakening," added Chris Duffey, head of AI innovation and strategy at Adobe (CMO.com's "There is this technology out there that accelerates and augments our thinking.

Jana Eggers, CEO of AI startup Nara Logics, wants everyone to understand AI. In her five minute Signal P&G talk at Shift Forum, she explains that in the end, it's just math and a lot of data -- and that data increasingly will be coming from businesses of all stripes, not just the big tech platforms. Jana Eggers: Wow! What a day it has been. I'm nervous to stand up here in front of you all because of all the greatness that has been shared on the stage. Thank you for taking a few minutes with me.

"Today, AI augments what we do, but in the future you'll see decisions made by (AI) entities," said Bernt Wahl, executive director of the Brain Machine Consortium. Wahl argues a logical progression of technological advances will result in smarter, more proactive AI systems. "With the web we created all these search engines and collected all this information," said Wahl, adding that systems like IBM's Watson now help determine whether all that information being collected is accurate. "In the future we'll have a'wisdom engine' that can take the knowledge we know is accurate and make decisions based on that,' he said. Jack Berkowitz, vice president of products and data science for Oracle's Adaptive Intelligence effort said AI has proven useful in helping companies filter the massive amounts of new data they're accumulating. "We call our program adaptive intelligence because it's about learning and adaptation and keeping pace," said Berkowitz. "Companies that try to keep up using the kind of rules-based systems we've had for years won't be able to.