The ability to create intellectual machines has intrigued human beings since ancient times. The name, Artificial Intelligence (AI), was first used by John McCarthy who thinks of it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. The research works in AI are associated with fabricating machines to automate tasks requiring intelligent behavior.

Now, Jeff Hawkins, the man behind Palm Pilot and Treo, is touting his inimitable invention-software that mimics the human brain. The novel notion mounts the possibilities of seeing scientific and social phenomenon through the eyes of a child. He is all set to launch his commercial third act, a company dubbed Numenta.

It looks a bit odd when a Silicon Valley executive says that ‘When you are born, you know nothing.’ Jeff wants to talk about human brain and comments that ‘the brain has to, on its own, discover that these things are out there. That’s a fascinating idea.’ Well, Jeff along with his business associate Donna Dubinsky and 12 engineers, has developed an artificial intelligence program, which he considers is the first software truly based on the principles of the human brain.

Since the brain is clueless at the birth, the software is born knowing nothing but it then creates a model and offers calculations based on that model. Jeff says that the result is a “Thinking Machine” that will solve the problems that are taken to be trifling by the humans.

How does the Jeff’s Thinking Machine works?

When the program is pooled with the swift computational potential of digital processors, it will become efficient enough to crack extremely complex problems by treating them just as a rivulet of new sensory data to construe just like the way a kid’s brain treats the outer world. When you supply info from an electrical power set-up into Numenta’s system, it creates its own implicit model of how that network operates.

Jeff believes that such systems will capture the intricacies of everything whether it’s the stock market or the weather in a way that existing computers can’t.

Commercialization of the notion:

Numenta is anticipated to release a ‘research release’ of its platform that merges three components.

�The core problem solving engine: It’s the operating system that works on the Hawkins’ theory of the human cortex.

�Open source software tools.

�Code for the learning algorithms.

Numenta is likely to earn its riches by owning and licensing the basic platform. Hawkins thinks that his idea has led to the emergence of a groundbreaking technology that will be much more appealing than the Palm or the Treo.

Interestingly, Numenta doesn’t have any marketing department to lure the customers. But, who need it when your mail inbox is flooded with daily e-mails from everyone who know the value of artificial intelligence?

Is this research another shot in the dark?

There are many other who favor the concept of artificial intelligence such as the Decade of the Brain, the 5th Generation Computing Project in Japan, fuzzy logic, and the neural networks. If we take a look from different side, Jeff is merely another entrant to the family who thinks of unlocking the mysteries of mind and then incorporating them into the machines. So, doesn’t it looks like another shot in the dark?

Well, Jeff says, ‘No, It’s quite different, and I can explain why.‘ He further says:

Just as with the brain, the easiest way for an HTM (hierarchical temporal memory) to learn to identify an object is by recognizing that its elements - the four legs of a dog, the lines of a letter in the alphabet - are consistently found in similar arrangements. And, just as your cortex can combine sound with vision to confirm that you are seeing a dog instead of a fox, HTMs can also be hooked together. Most important, an HTM can do what humans start doing from birth but that computers never have: not just learn, but generalize.

What do I think about the new technology?

Jeff doubts that the platform they are shipping is going to be around in 10 years but he seems to be very optimistic about the core principle, the hierarchical temporal memory component and believes that it can’t be wrong.

Well, we have already witnessed many researches done on artificial intelligence and their destiny too. What I feel is that the sixth sense and ‘mind’s eye’ play an essential part in any problem solving application and I am not sure how that can be replicated in a machine. However, keeping in mind how Jeff is handling this, I can’t take it as just another shot in the dark as he says...he can’t be wrong.