The point at which humans create something more intelligent than themselves. The Singularity, as a technological concept, has been known about for longer than people realize. In 1958 Stanislaw Ulam talked about it as "...the ever accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approach...
Smartphones to sense our moods?
In tune with your emotions
Smartphones will soon begin to act as intelligent companions with the skill to sense what our feelings are, and also have the capacity to advise us on what we need to do to enhance our lives.
Their sensors can gather data which advanced software can analyze, compare with millions of other samples in the cloud and derive conclusions from. In an instant, they can then give weighted probabilities, i.e. how likely they are. Examples already exist - the University of Rochester has a research project which can analyse stress levels in a voice recording already.
This man made brainpower won't simply be bound to smart phones, however. In the rapidly expanding world of IoT, any sensors can be used to gather these readings for further analysis in the cloud. Practical applications were recently shown at Internet World in London, where a radio player that can choose the next tune to play based on your mood was demonstrated.
MIT announces 168-Core chip to bring AI to smartphones
Deep learning capabilities
MIT recently unveiled a chip they claim can give smartphones, tablets and even IoT devices the kind of horsepower which allows them to perform deep learning roles.
The 168-core monster aims to shift the processing point from the cloud to the local device.
Currently, most devices are used as not much more than data collectors from their sensors. The could then performs the analysis after the data has been uploaded. Problems with this include network connectivity, latency, congestion, security and power continuity. These ultra-powerful chips can offload may of the cloud roles to the local device.
As well as this awesome processing power, MIT announced breakthroughs in its energy efficiency - a huge concern for devices with no permanent wired power supply.
