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Artificial Intelligence Takes A Step Forward As Algorithm Teaches Machines How To Learn

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Computer scientists from New York University, MIT and the University of Toronto have developed a new computer algorithm allows computers to not only recognize, but draw draw basic visual concepts with an accuracy that is hardly distinguishable from human works.

The advancement marks a major breakthrough in the field of computer learning, as it allows for more creative tasks — effectively broadening the scope of what can be achieved with computers.

The paper’s lead author, NYU’s Brenden Lake, explained that their findings, which were published in the journal Science, “show that by reverse engineering how people think about a problem, we develop better algorithms,” which points towards “promising methods” for speeding up other machine learning tasks.

Our results show that by reverse engineering how people think about a problem, we can develop better algorithms (…) Moreover, this work points to promising methods to narrow the gap for other machine learning tasks.

Assistant University of Toronto computer science professor Ruslan Salakhutdinov, one of the authors of the paper, referred to the replication of human abilities with computing as “an exciting area of research connecting machine learning, statistics, computer vision and cognitive science.”

It has been very difficult to build machines that require as little data as humans when learning a new concept (…) Replicating these abilities is an exciting area of research connecting machine learning, statistics, computer vision, and cognitive science.

The New York Times reports that the recent advancement is “noteworthy” as a result of the increased prevalence of machine-vision systems in various aspects of human lives, which include video game peripherals, Internet searches as well as car, cyclist and pedestrian detection and safety systems.

Recently, Silicon Valley investors including the likes of Elon Musk banded together to pledge $1 billion towards a new project, a nonprofit organization known as OpenAI. The new organization aims to improve humanity through researching, developing and sharing their efforts in the field of artificial intelligence.

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