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Neurons_chip

The defeat of Go champion Lee Se-dol by Google's AlphaGo last week caused an outpouring of emotion more than appropriate to an opera operation than a lath game competition. 1 magazine breathlessly described "the sadness and beauty" of watching an AI outmaneuver its human opponent. Unfortunately, this kind of journalism misconstrues the situation.

Neurons notwithstanding remain the most powerful piece of computation machinery on the face of the planet. More to the point, nobody throws up their easily in despair when a screwdriver removes a flathead screw improve than their fingernail tin, and yet the parallel is an apt one. The circuitry of the human brain has not been honed by evolution to be especially good at playing the game of Go, whatsoever more than evolution has fine-tuned our fingernails for removing screws.

Which is not to say there is no room for surprise in today's world of speedily advancing technological achievement. What is more impressive, however, is when computers showroom greater skill than humans at tasks evolution has been perfecting for millions of years like exercising a sense of smell. And yet such advancements are taking place correct beneath our noses, metaphorically speaking.

Recently a UK startup called Koniku released details on a drone that uses neurons embedded in a computer architecture to achieve the sense of smell exhibited by a bee. With only 64 neurons, the bit achieves a sense of scent capable of detecting explosives over one kilometer away. The accompanying video bears testimony to this amazing accomplishment, as the drone in question hones in on its target with almost bee similar movement. In fact, the simply matter missing is an incessant buzzing noise.

The use of neurons to build computer processors has the potential to be revolutionary. Anyone familiar with Moore's Law knows we are quickly running upwardly against the boundaries of processing power given today's silicon architecture. While a number of scientific breakthroughs suggest ways for sidestepping this upper limit, few hold the promise that biological computing does. Neurons are immensely efficient, as compared with other kinds computing architectures, including the much touted quantum computers, which require specialized cooling units that eat up electricity by the kilowatt. In comparison, the human encephalon runs on a mere xx watts of electricity.

How the Koniku team managed to meld neurons with electronic circuitry is where the scientific discipline really gets interesting. I of the starting time hurdles encountered was finding a way to proceed the neurons alive in the decidedly not-biological environment constitute on a circuit lath. To do so, the Koniku scientists created tiny shells that encapsulate each neuron and controls the temperature, humidity and supply of nutrients. These shells likewise have the power to regulate how the neurons interact with each other. This characteristic creates the ability to take advantage of the neuron's unique capability for massively parallel processing.

The more of import question is how easily information technology will be to calibration this compages. The explosive sensing chip used on the drones requires a mere 64 neurons, while Osh Agabi of the Koniku team estimates 500 neurons would exist required to practice the computations necessary for a self-driving car. This is a mere pittance when one compares it with the 100,000 neurons institute in a slice of homo encephalon the size of a grain of sand. Clearly the Koniku chip has a long way to go before it equals our own processing power. But the journeying of a thou thoughts begins with a single neuron.