If you think smartphones have made a big impact on our lives today, wait till you see what the computers of tomorrow are capable of.
Peter Van Der Made, current Chief Scientist at vWISP based in Western Australia has spent over a decade studying the human brain and understanding how to replicate it in computer form. He is formerly IBM's Chief Scientist at Internet Security Systems.
His new book, Higher Intelligence, tells the story of a 10-year breakthrough R&D project to build an 'artificial brain' chip that will help computers learn like the human brain.
In 2004, Bill Gates told a class of engineering students: "If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts."
This breakthrough Gates referred to has now been achieved and is set to change the world in ways that not even Hollywood has imagined.
"By producing computer chips that allow computers to learn for themselves, we have unlocked the next generation of computers and artificial intelligence," Van Der Made says.
"Current computers are great tools for number crunching, statistical analysis, or surfing the Internet. But their usefulness is limited when it comes to being able to think for themselves and develop new skills," he says.
Instead of us buying apps for our smartphones to make them 'smarter', Van Der Made says new super smart computers, machines and mobile devices will be making themselves smarter without our help.
