Bobbleheads as Tools to Test Neuromorphic Chips

Mike Davies recently showed the promise of neuromorphic computing to build computing systems that work more like our brains. He used Intel’s new self-learning research chip — codenamed Loihi — which mimics how the brain learns based on feedback from the environment. Loihi was able to rapidly distinguish — in just four seconds, and based on a handful of photos — among a rubber duck, an elephant figurine and a bobblehead of scientist Rosalind Franklin. “It’s a small but exciting example of how neuromorphic computing could deliver more efficient artificial intelligence,” Mike says. “While this is a proof-of-concept that uses less than 1 percent of the chip’s resources, it shows that the architecture works, and we expect to see orders of magnitude gains in efficiency as the networks are scaled up to larger problems.”