Nowadays, we use artificial intelligence in our daily lives, perhaps more than we realize, from Alexa and Siri, to the wide range of “smart” devices we have in our homes, cars, phones and businesses.
The amount of computing power and training required for artificial intelligence systems is steadily increasing, and modeling AI based on the human brain presents a significant challenge due to the complex and massive neural network that makes up the human brain.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's research and development arm, plans to streamline this process and recently announced that it is accepting proposals to create conscious AI robots modeled after insect brains.
The goal of the new project is to find a way to build small, user‑friendly, energy‑efficient AI robots. Insects are an excellent choice to start this effort, as despite their limited processing and problem‑solving capabilities, they possess high levels of functionality in their environment.
“This opportunity we are offering calls for those who wish to submit innovative fundamental research concepts aimed at understanding the integrated sensory and neural systems in microscopic insects and developing novel computational models that could be mapped onto suitable hardware to emulate their impressive functionality”, said DARPA.
If DARPA could create an effective AI insect model, it would be easy to embed artificial intelligence into a conscious robot that thinks and acts like an insect.
Such a robot would not only be more efficient and require less computational training, but it could also help to unravel the mysteries of how the brain processes information and stores memory.
“Nature has imposed on these small insects a drastic miniaturization and energy efficiency, some of which have only a few hundred neurons in a compact shape, while maintaining its basic functionality”, says the DARPA announcement. “This research could lead to the ability to extract conclusions, predict, generalize and remove problems in systematic or entirely new ways in order to find solutions to problems”.
A prize worth 1 million dollars will be awarded for the winning proposal, if it can successfully prove that it can create an insect AI model.
