Computers will outsmart humans some day, said some of the nation’s most successful innovators at the Intel Developer Forum this week in San Francisco.
Intel’s chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, on Thursday led his keynote with the idea that advancements in technology have surpassed predictions and that in the not-so-distant future machines could surpass humans in intelligence.
Rattner touched on the idea of technological singularity, or rapid progress, championed by innovator and artificial-intelligence expert Ray Kurzweil. In blogs and talks, Kurzweil has said he believes machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence. He said he also believes that technological change is so rapid and profound that it will lead to immortal software-based humans and ultra-high levels of intelligence.
The most common idea of singularity is based on AI, but it goes beyond that, according to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, based in Palo Alto. It also includes direct brain-computer interfaces and genetic engineering.
Through a video discussion at the forum, Kurzweil said machines are talking to each other at billions of bits per second. Human neurons send signals at a top speed of 150 meters per second. And most human neurons can go a maximum of 200 times per second, according to the Singularity Institute. In comparison, speeds in modern computer chips are about 2GHz, a 10 million-fold difference.
Tan Le, Emotiv Systems president and cofounder, demonstrated an example of brain-computer interface. Emotiv, based in San Francisco, uses brain interface and electroencephalography, or EEG, technology. Brain-interface technology works by looking at a person’s electrical brain activity and processing it so the computer takes commands directly from the brain.
This happens by observing the electrical impulses emitted from a person’s brain cells or neurons through EEG, a noninvasive technology. These impulses are sent through the company’s EPOC, a wearable headset, which…