Google’s Deep Learning project and the search for a brain-like computer

Stanford Professor Andrew Ng is bringing back the idea of an artificial intelligence that can think like a person. With Google’s Deep Learning project, he’s creating machines that take a multi-layered approach to information, building up knowledge and figuring out concepts by passing data between various networks that can each recognize a small piece of it. The approach is designed to mimic how the human brain processes information with neural networks, and it’s starting to work — last year, Google’s “brain” figured out how to identify cats in YouTube videos without being told that the concept of “cat” existed. Wired has profiled Ng and his work on brain-like computers, a project that also ties into current government-funded brain mapping projects in the US and Europe.