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Intel unveils an AI chip modeled after the human brain

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Intel has announced a neuromorphic artificial intelligence (AI) test chip named 'Loihi' that's modeled after the human brain and can learn from its surroundings or locally from within the machine it is part of.

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“As part of an effort within Intel Labs, Intel has developed a first-of-its-kind self-learning neuromorphic chip – codenamed Loihi – that mimics how the brain functions by learning to operate based on various modes of feedback from the environment. This extremely energy-efficient chip, which uses the data to learn and make inferences, gets smarter over time and does not need to be trained in the traditional way. It takes a novel approach to computing via asynchronous spiking,” Michael Mayberry, MD of Intel Labs said in a blog post.

Intel has been exploring neuromorphic tech for a while and even designed a chip in 2012. Instead of logic gates, it uses "spiking neurons" as a fundamental computing unit. Loihi has 1,024 artificial neurons or 130,000 simulated neurons with 130 million possible synaptic connections. That's a bit more complex than, say, a lobster's brain, but quite distant from our 80 billion neurons.

Each neuromorphic core of the Loihi chip includes a learning engine that can be programmed to adapt network parameters during operation. It supports reinforcement, supervised, unsupervised, and other learning patterns.

"The self-learning capabilities prototyped by this test chip have enormous potential to improve automotive and industrial applications as well as personal robotics -- any application that would benefit from autonomous operation and continuous learning in an unstructured environment. For example, recognising the movement of a car or bike," Mayberry added.

Though all this does sound great, neuromorphic chips have yet to show better performance in real-life applications than regular CPUs and GPUs.

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