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DARPA Tackles Machine Learning

Posted by samzenpus on from the learn-faster dept.

coondoggie writes "Researchers at DARPA want to take the science of machine learning — teaching computers to automatically understand data, manage results and surmise insights — up a couple notches. Machine learning, DARPA says, is already at the heart of many cutting edge technologies today, like email spam filters, smartphone personal assistants and self-driving cars. 'Unfortunately, even as the demand for these capabilities is accelerating, every new application requires a Herculean effort. Even a team of specially-trained machine learning experts makes only painfully slow progress due to the lack of tools to build these systems,' DARPA says."

9 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Oblig... by famebait · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even a team of specially-trained machine learning experts makes only painfully slow progress due to the lack of tools to build these systems

    Why not just teach a machine to do it?

    --
    sudo ergo sum
    1. Re:Oblig... by gshegosh · · Score: 4, Funny

      Programming a machine to teach is not as hard as it sounds.

      I hear you man, I probably had the same German teacher ;-)

  2. Skynet by Edis+Krad · · Score: 4, Funny

    Defense agency investing in Machine Learning technology? What could possibly go wrong?!

    1. Re:Skynet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Then you haven't seen my spam filter!

      Seriously, I am an AI PhD student/researcher. We get this kind of crap all of the time.
      "you are working on robots, when is SkyNet? Hahaha"
      "...so... the robot is lost and can't figure out where it is... I'm trying to make it so it can figure it out by how many steps its taken and looking around"
      "SkyNet!"

      "you are working on a program to control a controller for a video game, when is SkyNet? Hahaha"
      "...so... I'm trying to figure out how the computer can make Mario jump over the bad guys without telling him that the bad guys are 'bad'"
      "SkyNet!"

      "you are working on a program to figure out emotional states of students, how long before you unemploy all the nation's teachers?"
      "...so... I'm trying to figure out how to teach a computer to recognize when people are bored..."
      "Why do you hate your teachers?!"

      Seriously, the idea that we will be able to classify spam, or map a room, of jump over an obstacle, or recognize boredom so well that it gets sentience (and decides to kill all of us) is laughable.

      Posting Anon from work.

  3. "DARPA Tackles Learned Machines" by hildolfr · · Score: 5, Funny

    a headline for future 2030.

  4. This headline pops up every few years by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They've been trying it since the 50s without it has to be said, too much success given the amount of effort thats been put in. I suspect until we REALLY understand how boligical brains do it (not , "meh, some sort of neural back propagation", yeah , we know that , but what propagation and how exactly?) then machine learning will still remain at the bottom rung of the intelligence ladder.

    Personally I think at the moment pre programmed intelligence is still a more successful route to go down. Though hopefully that will change.

    1. Re:This headline pops up every few years by WillAdams · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A.I. is a classic case of moving goal posts --- there's an assumption a hard problem requires it, the problem gets solved using ever-more sophisticated analysis/pattern-matching/data-processing --- the problem domain is no longer considered A.I.

      --
      Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
    2. Re:This headline pops up every few years by Spottywot · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think that learning how the biological brain does it before building a learning machine is the wrong way around. I think that the person/team that builds the first genuinely successful learning machine will give the biological researchers a clue about potential mechanisms for learning, it will take a genuine leap of imagination as well as the type of grunt work the DARPA guys are doing.

      --
      In a cybernetic fit of rage she pissed off to another age...
  5. The best chess programs do not learn by Viol8 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They're hard coded and use massively parallel depth searching. The brute force approach has been the best for chess computers for decades.

    And google search and translate isn't really learning, they're just statistical systems that given the best result based on the data they've gathered. They don't "think" about it in any meaningful way.