DARPA Thinks Insect Brains Might Hold the Secret to Next-Gen AI

The Pentagon’s research wing is trying to reduce the amount of computing power and hardware needed to run advanced artificial intelligence tools, and it’s turning to insects for inspiration.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Friday began soliciting ideas on how to build computing systems as small and efficient as the brains of “very small flying insects.” The Microscale Biomimetic Robust Artificial Intelligence Networks program, or MicroBRAIN, could ultimately result in artificial intelligence systems that can be trained on less data and operated with less energy, according to the agency.

Analyzing insects’ brains, which allow them to navigate the world with minimal information, could also help researchers understand how to build AI systems capable of basic common sense reasoning.

“Nature has forced on these small insects drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some having only a few hundred neurons in a compact form-factor, while maintaining basic functionality,” officials wrote in the solicitation. “Understanding highly-integrated sensory and nervous systems in miniature insects and developing prototype computational models … could be mapped onto suitable hardware in order to emulate their impressive function.”

The project comes as part of DARPA’s broader Artificial Intelligence Exploration program, which provides rapid, small-scale investments in efforts to create so-called “third wave” artificial intelligence. Unlike current AI tools, which must be explicitly trained to perform narrow functions, third wave systems would be instilled with the generalized reasoning and contextual awareness so as to better understand the world it describes.

https://archive.fo/Dt9y9

https://futurism.com/darpa-wants-conscious-robots-insect-brains/

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a25849798/darpa-insect-brain-ai-machine-learning/

https://archive.fo/kWzic

https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/darpa-thinks-insect-brains-might-hold-secret-next-gen-ai/154040/

The Super-Secure Quantum Cable Hiding in the Holland Tunnel

Commuters inching through rush-hour traffic in the Holland Tunnel between Lower Manhattan and New Jersey don’t know it, but a technology likely to be the future of communication is being tested right outside their car windows. Running through the tunnel is a fiber-optic cable that harnesses the power of quantum mechanics to protect critical banking data from potential spies.

The cable’s trick is a technology called quantum key distribution, or QKD. Any half-decent intelligence agency can physically tap normal fiber optics and intercept whatever messages the networks are carrying: They bend the cable with a small clamp, then use a specialized piece of hardware to split the beam of light that carries digital ones and zeros through the line. The people communicating have no way of knowing someone is eavesdropping, because they’re still getting their messages without any perceptible delay.

QKD solves this problem by taking advantage of the quantum physics notion that light—normally thought of as a wave—can also behave like a particle. At each end of the fiber-optic line, QKD systems, which from the outside look like the generic black-box servers you might find in any data center, use lasers to fire data in weak pulses of light, each just a little bigger than a single photon. If any of the pulses’ paths are interrupted and they don’t arrive at the endpoint at the expected nanosecond, the sender and receiver know their communication has been compromised.

“Financial firms see this as a differentiator,” says John Prisco, chief executive officer of Quantum Xchange, the company that’s been operating the cable in the Holland Tunnel since the fall. Prisco says several large banks and asset management firms are testing his gear, but he declined to name them, citing nondisclosure agreements. The companies are considering using QKD to guard their most sensitive secrets, he says, including trading algorithms and customer settlement accounts. Quantum Xchange, based in Bethesda, Md., says it hopes to stretch its cables from Boston to Washington, D.C., and is also promoting them to U.S. government agencies.

https://archive.fo/MaPsC

https://www.bloombergquint.com/businessweek/the-super-secure-quantum-cable-hiding-in-the-holland-tunnel