A Cognitive Machine

Over the past five years, a team led by Sandia cognitive psychologist Chris Forsythe has been working on creating intelligent machines: computers that can accurately infer intent, remember prior experiences with users, and allow users to call upon simulated experts to help them analyze problems and make decisions.

Forsythe has been working to create a “synthetic human” — A software application that could think like a human being. Of course, this was for national defense, ie, the government. In 2002, DARPA gave funding to Sandia to develop a real-time machine that could figure out what its user is thinking.

“For instance, sitting in my car at a red light, I should be able to set up and run a simulation that shows me possible effects on traffic of the accident that is ahead of me,” Forsythe said.

“Such a tool would not necessarily tell me the answer, but it would augment my own cognitive processes by making me aware of potential realities, as well as the interrelationships between various factors that I may or may not be able to control, influence or avoid.”

Computer software often, but not exclusively, relies on programmed rules. If “A” happens, then so does “B.” Humans are a bit more complex. Stress, fatigue, anger, hunger, joy and differing levels of ability can change how humans respond to any given stimulus.

Through the use of AI, the computer would get to learn its user and understand what the user is thinking. By this means the computer would have a good idea of what the user knows and would be able to qualify queries based on that information. It would be able to converse with the user to determine what the user really wants.

Forsythe and his team are trying to mimic real human interaction, embedding within computers an extremely human-like cognitive model that enables the machine to have an interaction with the user that more closely resembles communications between two thinking humans.

“If you had an aide tasked with watching everything you do, learning everything they could about you and helping you in whatever way they could, it is extremely unlikely that your interactions with that aide would in any way resemble interactions with Clippy,” Forsythe said.

If you are picturing the agent, Clippy, that Microsoft uses, wipe that from your mind. Forsythe says that Clippy is an example of what not to do when building a cognitive system. Microsoft took the one-size-fits-all approach which greatly limits the abilities of the system.

When two humans interact, two (hopefully) cognitive entities are communicating. As cognitive entities — thinking beings — each has some sense of what the other knows and does not know. They may have shared past experiences that they can use to put current events in context; they might recognize each other’s particular sensitivities.

Wired’s article, Machine Thinks, Therefore It Is, doesn’t mention when the completed product should be available but it does say that the cognitive machine technology should be embedded into most computer systems in the next 10 years.

Source: Wired Magazine