Blog: Rethinking Artificial Intelligence

Rethinking Artificial Intelligence
MIT News (12/07/09) Chandler, David L.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is embarking on the Mind Machine Project (MMP), an initiative led by artificial intelligence (AI) pioneers to create new breakthroughs by rethinking fundamental AI assumptions. "Essentially, we want to rewind to 30 years ago and revisit some ideas that had gotten frozen" while fixing basic mistakes made over the years, says MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld. He says the MMP aims to specifically address the three biggest quagmires in AI research--the modeling of thought, the reliable simulation of memory, and bridging the gap between computer science and physical science. Tackling the first challenge entails establishing what Gershenfeld calls "an ecology of models" so that problem-solving can be facilitated in multiple ways. Addressing the memory issue involves teaching computers to learn to reason while incorporating rather than excluding inconsistency and ambiguity. The third AI research area requires a new programming approach called reconfigurable asynchronous logic automata, whose goal is to "re-implement all of computer science on a base that looks like physics," representing computations "in a way that has physical units of time and space, so the description of the system aligns with the system it represents," Gershenfeld says. One of the projects the MMP group is developing is a brain co-processor, an assistive system designed to help people with cognitive disorders by monitoring a person's activities and brain functions, determining when he or she requires help, and supplying precisely the right piece of information at the right time.

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