

Palm founder Jeff Hawkins on neurology, big data, and the future of AI - rpm4321
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/07/the-intuition-machine/309392/

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dave_sullivan
Numenta/Grok/Hawkins harps on this idea of "streams" of data and how
traditional NNs don't work well because they lack recurrent connections. The
whole "no recurrent connections" thing was not true in the first place because
recurrent neural networks most certainly exist and did in 2005, they just
weren't very effective. However, fast forward to 2013 and nearly a decade of
new research, recurrent neural nets are more powerful than ever. I suspect
they could go head to head with anything Hawkins is selling.

The problem more generally ends up as a philosophical one: if we're trying to
create a machine capable of intelligence, how much inspiration should we take
from the brain? Perceptron based NNs loosely approximate the brain while
Hawkins believes a more literal approach is the way forward. Still, even
Hawkins' approach stops way short of something like the blue brain project.

Personally, I suspect it's much like achieving flight: We need to build an
airplane (a machine that takes advantage of the same phenomena as a bird does
in order to achieve flight). Just like the bird is not the only way to fly, I
don't think the human brain is the only way to generate intelligence. But
until someone can prove it one way or another, I have a feeling it's a debate
we'll be having for a while.

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nwenzel
Academia is really pushing the boundaries of neural networks and getting
machines to perceive visual and auditory input. Great to see commercial
ventures step in to create value from those advances. Google is hiring in that
field because [0] voice and sight would seem to be the two most natural inputs
(vs typing and clicking).

Interesting that Grok is not trying to push the boundaries of neural network
size in the same way that new Google employee Geoffrey Hinton has stated as
his goal. Grok's approach would likely create huge value to the Honeywell's
and GE's of the world. There are lots of turbines, thermostats, generators,
and robots to improve.

Will the day ever come that your coffee maker has a Nest-like capability to
determine when you're up, a Google Now-like function laity to know if you have
time for coffee, and a Grok-like capability to know when to have your coffee
ready?

Seems ridiculous, but there's a chip in just about everything. So, why not?

[0] My own speculation.

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scotth
Here's an related talk by Jeff Hawkins at Google, where he gets into his ideas
about the structure of the brain, and what he's done to reconstruct it in
software/hardware.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y43qwS8fl4&list=FLgNLujlOCEu...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y43qwS8fl4&list=FLgNLujlOCEuMeiWdePPZaAQ)

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moondowner
Thanks for pointing out the video!

In this talk, in the second half Jeff is actually talking about Grok too, and
at ~38 he shows the architecture:
[http://i41.tinypic.com/4jhiu.jpg](http://i41.tinypic.com/4jhiu.jpg)

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gwern
Numenta was founded in March 2005, more than 8 years ago. What has it
accomplished?

