Neuromorphic Computers, Machines Simulating the Brain with Steve Furber

MIND & MACHINE: Science & Tech of Maximizing Human Capability

My guest today is Steven Furber, who has led the design of the SpiNNiker neuromorphic computer — a brain simulator with one million cores on a single machine, each core interacting with the others in ways mimicking how living brains function. His work on the SpiNNiker neuromorphic computer is designed to both teach us more about how human brains work and to advance computational capabilities.

Neuromorphic computing is a sub-set of Artificial intelligence focusing on hardware that uses the information processing methods of brains, as opposed to other fields of AI using software algorithms.

Steven Furber is the ICL Professor of Computer Engineering in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester in the UK.

We discuss modeling the brain with machines, why neuromorphic computing is generating so much excitement these days, and how it opens up computational possibilities beyond traditional computers. Then we examine the potential capabilities and ethical challenges of artificial intelligence more broadly.