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"COMMON SENSE" is the Dark Matter of Artificial Intelligence. In the present era of Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, advanced quantum computing, we humans are literally surrounded by machines, everywhere, everyday. Many critics point to Artificial Intelligence as the main threat to humankind; while on the other hand, the supporters of AI claim that humans can never be replaced by machines, and would only ever compliment our abilities. Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence has undoubtedly emerged as one of the technological successes and with the amount of research and investment going into this domain, it is nowhere near an end. AI has impacted our lives greatly, with so many services and products relying on it that it is irrevocably connected with our everyday world.

In the present era of Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning, advanced quantum computing we humans are surrounded by machines from everywhere. Many critics point to Artificial Intelligence as the main threat to humankind while on the other hand, the supporters of AI claim that humans can never be replaced by machines and would only compliment their abilities. Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence has undoubtedly emerged as one of the technological successes and with the amount of research and investment going into this domain, it is nowhere near an end. The past decade has shown us that it is no longer a story or science fiction to make machines intelligent -- in terms of learning as we humans do. Artificial Intelligence has impacted our lives greatly, with so many services and products relying on it that it is irrevocably connected with our everyday world.

In humans, common sense is relatively easy to identify, albeit a bit difficult to define. Get in line at the end of it? Grab the red-hot end of a metal poker that was in the fire moments before? How do we teach something as nebulous as common sense to artificial intelligence (AI)? Many researchers have tried to do so and failed.

Called Project Alexandria, Allen's basing the research effort out of his Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) in Seattle. It will first seek to produce standard measurements to determine the common sense abilities of AI models. Once it's possible to calculate whether something has common sense, researchers will be better placed to start figuring out how to teach it. Project Alexandria will be looking at ways to crowdsource common sense knowledge from individuals. By collecting common sense reactions "at an unprecedented scale," Alexandria will aim to develop a dataset sufficiently comprehensive to train an AI model.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will donate $125 million to the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence to fund a project to teach computers common sense. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen on Wednesday announced he would pour another $125 million into the non-profit Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence to fund a project to teach computers common sense. He notes the additional funding should help to underwrite existing research as well as the common sense initiative, called Project Alexandria. Artificial intelligence (AI) "recognizes objects, but can't explain what it sees," says Allen Institute CEO Oren Etzioni. "It can't read a textbook and understand the questions in the back of the book."

Roundup Your weekly dose of tidbits from the AI world, beyond everything we've already covered, begins with a senate committee hearing where a US lieutenant general, currently a nominee for the role of the director of the NSA, speaking about his concerns around the technology. And ends with a CEO of a Chinese AI startup demonstrating how AI can be used to perform a faceswap on Trump and Obama. Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone, currently the commander of the United States Army Cyber Command, was quizzed by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) about his thoughts on AI. The Senate Committee on Armed Services was considering the nomination of Nakasone for the role of director of the NSA, as well as Dr Brent Park to be deputy administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and Anne White to be assistant secretary of energy for environmental management for the department of energy. Senator Cruz brought up the idea of poisoning systems with adversarial examples, something that was discussed during the first congressional hearing on AI he chaired last year.

Paul Allen is pouring more money into artificial intelligence research. The Microsoft co-founder on Wednesday announced Project Alexandria, a new initiative that aims to help develop "common sense AI." Allen is committing $125 million over the next three years to the project, housed at the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2). The money will go toward Project Alexandria, as well as other work being done at AI2. AI research has seen exponential advancements over the past decade, but machines are still incapable of certain types of problem solving or dealing with unpredictable situations. "When I founded AI2, I wanted to expand the capabilities of artificial intelligence through high-impact research," Allen said in a statement. "Early in AI research, there was a great deal of focus on common sense, but that work stalled. AI still lacks what most 10-year-olds possess: ordinary common sense. We want to jump start that research to achieve major breakthroughs in the field."

Paul Allen puts a premium on common sense – so much so that he's investing $125 million to teach it to computers. The Microsoft co-founder said Wednesday he would commit the money over the next three years to the Seattle-based Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, known as AI2. The funds will go toward multiple AI2 projects, but specifically will be used for the new "Project Alexandria" that will try to bring together various technology elements used in artificial intelligence, with the goal of creating a system imbued with good sense and judgment. Currently, AI systems can scan and "read" text, interpret some pictures and play board games. But they can't react to unexpected situations or tell you, say, which way water would flow on a hill.