Join getAbstract to access the summary!

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI

Join getAbstract to access the summary!

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI

Wired,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

A neuroscientist explores “the organizing principle of all life” – and just might revolutionize AI along the way. 

auto-generated audio
auto-generated audio

Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Eye Opening
  • Visionary

Recommendation

Without fully understanding what makes humans tick, scientists won’t be able to create artificial intelligence that thinks like a human mind. Writing for Wired, Shaun Raviv has written a fascinating portrait of British neuroscientist Karl Friston, who claims to have found the core principle driving all living things. Now AI developers are thinking about using the same method to take AI to the next level. Raviv’s fascinating essay highlights the close connections between philosophy and artificial intelligence.

Summary

British neuroscientist Karl Friston revolutionized brain research in the 1990s by inventing brain imaging–analysis software that let researchers pinpoint changes in specific brain areas over time. He now pursues a line of inquiry that has intrigued him for years. One day in his mid-teens, the sight of a blooming cherry tree made him wonder whether an understanding of the entire universe derived from a single origin. Searching to find “the organizing principle of all life,” he developed a theory he calls the “free energy principle.”

The concept – and its underlying mathematical formula – eludes understanding by even ...

About the Author

Shaun Raviv is a freelance writer based in Atlanta, Georgia.


Comment on this summary