Minwa - the world's smartest artificial intelligence

Move over Google and Microsoft, here comes the Chinese.
The supercomputer name "Minwa" is the force behind Baidu.
It has just "taken the lead in the global race for true AI."

Minwa, the company's supercomputer, scanned more than 1 million images and taught itself to sort them into about 1,000 categories — and did so with 95.42% accuracy, the company claims, adding that no other computer has completed the task at that same level.

Google's system scored a 95.2% and Microsoft's, a 95.06%, Baidu said.

All three companies' computers, however, exceed human performance.

The concept of "deep learning," or self-learning, algorithms is not unique to Minwa. Yet Baidu seems to have the upper hand and is not slowing down: the company has announced plans to build an even faster computer in the next 2 years, one capable of 7 quadrillion calculations per second.

Detailed results of Baidu's report can be viewed at: arxiv.org...

I think the Chinese are going to be a real force to reckon with in the future. They, and a number of other countries, are investing a much greater percentage of their budget into research and development than the U.S. is. America has been steadily declining (comparatively) for years now, and living largely off past glory. And that will only get us so far. It seems like we've lost any sort of grand vision, and consequently are starting to fall behind the pack. More and more, innovation is being driven from abroad.

Overall, though, technology marches on. It's incredible when you think of all the technological advances that have taken place in just the last 20 years. If we somehow make it through the next 100 years without annihilating ourselves, the world will probably be almost unrecognizable compared with today. Wish I could be around to see it.

Thank for the AI update.

originally posted by: netbound
I think the Chinese are going to be a real force to reckon with in the future. They, and a number of other countries, are investing a much greater percentage of their budget into research and development than the U.S. is. America has been steadily declining (comparatively) for years now, and living largely off past glory. And that will only get us so far. It seems like we've lost any sort of grand vision, and consequently are starting to fall behind the pack. More and more, innovation is being driven from abroad.

Overall, though, technology marches on. It's incredible when you think of all the technological advances that have taken place in just the last 20 years. If we somehow make it through the next 100 years without annihilating ourselves, the world will probably be almost unrecognizable compared with today. Wish I could be around to see it.

Thank for the AI update.

That's what you get when you socialize needed services and free market luxury and BS items.

a reply to: netbound

I agree with you, the U.S. is living off former glory.

originally posted by: darkbake
a reply to: netbound

I agree with you, the U.S. is living off former glory.

That's funny considering two US companies are 2nd and 3rd in that race by an incredibly small margin.

China is definitely on top of their game, but I don't think for one second that the US is living off of its former glory.

~Namaste

I was always under impression that Google and MS are not in super computing, that is where IBM is. Somehow this news has flaw and its not really about super computers... but glad both China and USA have good way to categorize image and focus on the one they find offending...

Freedom 0 : Super-Powers 1

a reply to: SuperFrog

The New A.I. Brain Has Arrived – And It’s Analog, Not Digital
21stcenturywire.com...

"A group of scientists Down Under believe they’ve made the next big breakthrough in AI by configuring an analogue solution which outperforms its digital counterpart on multiple levels…"

a reply to: wasaka
If I understand it correctly, the Australian group mentioned in your link, wasaka, configured a memory cell based on the memristor concept, although it didn’t specify that explicitly. As impressive as that is, it’s not a new idea and wasn’t dreamed up in their lab, as the article seems to imply. I’m not trying to minimize their work - they may be the 1st ones to actually implement the memristor concept. I just wanted to make it clear that their work was based on an already existing framework.

The memristor (memory resistor) was the brain-child of Leon Chua and was originally proposed back in 1971. He was a Chinese-American engineer at UC Berkeley and did a lot of work/research on nonlinear circuitry and neural network theory. The memristor was just a concept, though, until recently (2008) when HP claimed it was their intention to implement it. Since then, HP and a handful of other companies have been developing it. I think HP has stated they will have a commercially available system based on super-fast memristor (memory) chips by 2018.

The memristor technology is a true game-changer in the electronics and computing industries. It will add a whole new dimension to information processing. Rather than being a digital/binary processor and representing data as strings of 1’s and 0’s, the memristor is capable of processing multi-layered data represented in numerous states, ie. 0, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, ..., 1. The result being a much faster, more powerful and efficient processor utilizing far less power to operate. This would be an analog-type processor, unlike the digital processors used today, and would more closely emulate how our brain functions. It will have a big impact on AI development and will allow things like machine learning, and other deep-mind processes, to advance much more quickly.

This Australian development represents a major step into the future of computing and AI. I think we’re on the verge of experiencing a serious paradigm shift in the world of information processing.

Great thread, wasaka...

a reply to: SuperFrog

but glad both China and USA have good way to categorize image and focus on the one they find offending...

Scary, I never looked at it that way initially. What better way to hunt down any one who posts photos of corruption, abuse of citizens by Law Enforcers or politicians misdeeds. Those who post the smoking gun images would have their PCs attacked and "illegal material" uploaded back to them so they can be arrested.

True censorship of all forms of public media.