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Artificial intelligence

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Where We See Shapes, AI Sees Textures

July 1, 2019

To researchers’ surprise, deep learning vision algorithms often fail at classifying images because they mostly take cues from textures, not shapes.

How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science

March 11, 2019

The latest AI algorithms are probing the evolution of galaxies, calculating quantum wave functions, discovering new chemical compounds and more. Is there anything that scientists do that can’t be automated?

Neuroscience Readies for a Showdown Over Consciousness Ideas

March 6, 2019

To make headway on the mystery of consciousness, some researchers are trying a rigorous new way to test competing theories.

Foundations Built for a General Theory of Neural Networks

January 31, 2019

Neural networks can be as unpredictable as they are powerful. Now mathematicians are beginning to reveal how a neural network’s form will influence its function.

Q&A

A New Approach to Understanding How Machines Think

January 10, 2019

Neural networks are famously incomprehensible, so Been Kim is developing a “translator for humans.”

Machine Learning Confronts the Elephant in the Room

September 20, 2018

A visual prank exposes an Achilles’ heel of computer vision systems: Unlike humans, they can’t do a double take.

New AI Strategy Mimics How Brains Learn to Smell

September 18, 2018

Machine learning techniques are commonly based on how the visual system processes information. To beat their limitations, scientists are drawing inspiration from the sense of smell.

‘Functional Fingerprint’ May Identify Brains Over a Lifetime

August 16, 2018

A unique neurological “functional fingerprint” allows scientists to explore the influence of genetics, environment and aging on brain connectivity.

To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future

July 10, 2018

A controversial theory suggests that perception, motor control, memory and other brain functions all depend on comparisons between ongoing actual experiences and the brain’s modeled expectations.

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