/ News
Microsoft wants to be part of Judgment Day, too: Introducing the Project Adam artificial intelligence
Microsoft has unveiled Project Adam, its new artificial intelligence that it claims is 50 times faster than comparable state-of-the-art systems deployed by the likes of Google. Adam can look at an image of almost anything and tell you exactly what it is; it can even differentiate between a Pembroke and Cardigan corgi. While image classification is actually a bit old hat by this point, Adam is twice as accurate and uses 30 times fewer computers than other comparable systems. Notably, while similar AIs are moving to massively parallel GPU computing, Adam uses plain old CPUs in Microsoft’s Azure cloud — an impressive feat that is only possible thanks to Microsoft’s use of lock-free “HOGWILD!” computing.
Project Adam uses a branch of artificial intelligence called deep learning neural networks (NNs). We’ve covered deep learning NNs before, but here’s a quick synopsis. You start with a bunch of pristine synthetic neurons (represented by software). You then expose these neurons to a huge corpus of training material (in this case 14 million images of 22,000 object categories). Clever training algorithms look for markers that can be used to classify each category, and slowly connections are formed between the synthetic neurons to represent these categories. Later, once training is complete, you can put a new image into the system (say, from your smartphone camera), and it will percolate through the neural network until it arrives at the right classification. Deep learning NNs are pretty accurate: Facebook has a system that is as accurate as humans (97%) at matching faces.
Way back in 2012, Google and Stanford showed off a deep learning NN called DistBelief that used 16,000 processing cores to perform image classification. Microsoft says Adam is twice as accurate, uses 30 times fewer machines, and is “50 times faster” overall. These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, though: It’s a little silly to assume that Google hasn’t made any improvements to its system since 2012.
Project Adam, hard at work identifying corgis and dumplings
Microsoft says the secret sauce behind Adam is its use of Hogwild (its creators actually call it HOGWILD!, but I refuse to write it like that, for the sake of your sensitive eyes). Hogwild [research paper] is an interesting, niche method of computing that eschews locking in favor of increased parallelism. Basically, in a modern multithreaded system, resources (RAM, storage, etc.) are locked to ensure that only one thread can use that resource at any one time. This prevents collisions (two programs writing to the same region of RAM at the same time would be disastrous) — but at the expense of blocking (the second program has to wait for the first program to release its lock before it can continue).
Hogwild gets rid of the locking, which massively increases the throughput of multithreaded parallelism. This is how Adam manages to be so much faster than Google’s solution, while using just a small cluster of plain ol’ Azure CPU cores. Don’t go and install Hogwild on your own PC though: Such a lock-free approach is only possible in certain situations where collisions don’t cause significant repercussions — such as deep learning neural networks, seemingly.
Yup, it’s a Shih Tzu. Thanks, Project Adam!
So far, Project Adam’s only use is an internal smartphone app that identifies objects in photos. As you can see in the photo, this is great if you don’t know your Shih Tzu from a Sheltie, but it could also be used to instantly tell you the calorific content of everything on your plate, or to identify the mysterious rash on your neck.
While Project Adam has obvious applications, an accurate computer vision/object classification program isn’t going to change the world on its own, and it surely isn’t Microsoft’s end goal. Peter Lee, head of Microsoft Research, thinks parts of Adam could be used in e-commerce, sentiment analysis, and robotics. A bit further down the line, Lee even thinks Adam could be the basis of an “ultimate machine intelligence” that handles a much wider range of input sources — like humans with our many senses. Yes, it would seem Microsoft wants to challenge Google in making the first human-level intelligence. What could possibly go wrong?
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186305-microsoft-wants-to-be-part-of-judgment-day-too-introducing-the-project-adam-artificial-intelligence
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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