Abstract

From AlphaGo to driverless cars, AI has made remarkable progress in the past decade. This is partly because of faster processing speed but it is largely due to the use of massive machine learning, based on neural network architecture. Superficially, this approach to computing has similarities to the structure and function of the brain, which has huge number of neurons and very rich connectivity between them, with connections (synapses) that can change their transmission strength according to simple rules. The current slogan, ‘Brain-Inspired AI’ – seen everywhere in China – expresses the hope that the brain might hold other secrets of neural computation that could be copied in future generations of AI. This might be true, but it is important to understand that our knowledge of the brain is still very elementary and the probabilistic, analog nature of brain computation is, in many ways, fundamentally different from the principles of machine computation.In fact, it is possible that developments in AI will tell us more about how the brain works, than brain research tells us about AI.

从AlphaGo到无人驾驶汽车，人工智能在过去的十年里取得了显著的进步。这部分是因为处理速度更快，但很大程度上是由于使用了基于神经网络架构的大规模机器学习。从表面上看，这种计算方法与大脑的结构和功能有相似之处，大脑有大量的神经元，它们之间有非常丰富的连通性，连接（突触）可以根据简单的规则改变它们的传输强度。目前在中国随处可见的“大脑启发型人工智能”的口号表达了一种希望，即大脑可能掌握神经计算的其他秘密，这些秘密可以在未来几代人工智能中复制。这也许是真的，但重要的是要明白，我们对大脑方面的知识仍然是非常基础的，而且大脑计算的概率性、模拟性在许多方面与机器计算的原理根本不同。事实上，相比于大脑研究告诉我们的人工智能，人工智能的发展有可能更多地告诉我们大脑是如何工作的。

Speaker Bio

Sir Colin Blakemore is Chair Professor of Neuroscience at City University of Hong Kong, and Emeritus Professor in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and at the University of Oxford. After studying medicine at Cambridge and completing a PhD at Berkeley, he worked in the medical schools of Cambridge and Oxford for more than 40 years. From 2003-7 he was Chief Executive of the UK Medical Research Council. His research has focused on vision, development and plasticity of the brain, and on neurodegenerative disease. Colin Blakemore has been President of the British Science Association, the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Society of Biology. He is a member of 12 scientific academies, including the Royal Society and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and his honours include the Ralph Gerard Prize (the highest award of the Society for Neuroscience), and both the Faraday Prize and the Ferrier Prize from the Royal Society. He has been involved in scientific advice to government and in public communication about science, with almost 1,000 TV and radio broadcasts and frequent articles in the press.