Samsung believes it has a better idea to create brain-like chips: borrow existing brain structures. The company has come up with a method that would “copy and paste” a brain’s neuron wiring map to 3D neuromorphic chips.
The new approach would be dependent on a nanoelectrode array that enters large volumes of neurons to record the connection on neurons and the strength of the connections. Users will be able to copy data and paste it to a 3D network of solid-state memory, whether it’s off-the-shelf flash storage or RAM.
Human-like brain behave
Each memory unit will have a conductance that shows the strength of every neuron connection in the map. As a result, you’ll get “reverse-engineering the brain” like researchers originally wanted, said Samsung.
The new tool could come in handy as a “shortcut” to AI systems that behave like real brains, including the flexibility to understand new concepts and adapt to altering conditions. There’s a possibility that you might even see fully autonomous machines with true cognition, as per the researchers.
However, complexity could be a big problem. As a human brain has around 100 billion neurons with thousand times more synaptic links, an ideal neuromorphic chip would require more than 100 trillion memory units.
Making a virtual brain function is a challenge
That’s clearly a difficult challenge for Samsung and doesn’t include the code required to make a virtual brain function. The company might have paved the way for a human-like AI, but it could take a long time before anyone reaches that goal.
BCI has also raised a lot of concerns. Previously Elon Musk’s Neuralink posted a video, where a monkey, who’d been implanted, can be seen playing ping pong with its thoughts. While the Neuralink demonstration excited Musk’s fans, it received criticism from scientists and tech enthusiasts concerning privacy, data ownership, and biomedical ethics. It would be interesting to see how Samsung would handle the data.
