Do you remember Skynet from the film Terminator? According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, IBM today announced a “breakthrough in a human-brain chip”, essentially a technology reminiscent of what Terminator portrayed with Skynet.
It is also somewhat unsettling that, according to the SZ report, the US military was involved in the development. The article states:
US Department of Defense Funded the Research
The chips are the result of six years of research involving one hundred scientists. DARPA, the US Department of Defense agency that funds research projects, contributed around 41 million dollars.
According to Golem, possible applications include:
Future cognitive chips are expected to be capable of capturing and processing information from the complex real world through a wide range of sensors. A cognitive computer could, for example, monitor the global water supply, recording data such as temperature, pressure, wave height, acoustics and sea level – including for tsunami warnings.
I find it a little disappointing that none of these media reports discusses the risks inherent in this technology. Even so, the articles are well worth reading. Golem also provides several videos and images on the subject.
Here are the cited articles:
SZ: Prototype for a Synapse Processor – IBM Celebrates Breakthrough with Human-Brain Chip
Golem: A Chip Like a Brain
