What is Artificial Intelligence?

simulated war video game (setting: iraq)

Video "war" games are not for pro players only anymore. High ranking military officers also, play the game. But they are not playing the games for the sake of mere entertainment; they are up to the challenge of winning with every possible solution. The sophistication of video games and the advances in computerized modeling and group behavior prediction are creating "virtual worlds" wherein defense analysts can explore and predict outcomes of various possible military and policy actions.

According to a research computer scientist in Maryland, defense analysts can simulate all possible military actions both for offensive and defensive strategies in this "virtual world" environment. By actually playing the "game", they can better understand the positive and negative effects of their propositions for policy options or military actions. They can experience in the "virtual war zone", the consequences of every decision military commanders make to progress in the war.

The computer scientist even developed a "virtual Afghanistan" or other real war zones in order to capture the optimized defense analysis for every situation that may occur in the virtual war field. And this artificial intelligence project had been very useful in the development of real security strategies before, during and even after actual defense operations.

Click here to read more about War Video Games, Simulated War Games, Real Security in Virtual Worlds.

This graphical figure shows the optimal solution by the VACCINE-AIS algorithm (PhysOrg.com)

One of the most difficult and challenging aspect of the human's physiology is the immune system. It is very complicated because it involves millions of cells and antibodies fighting against foreign microorganisms that evade the immune system every single second.

At Oklahoma State University, two researchers have worked together to build an artificial immune system that mimics the way the human body acquires immunity against diseases through vaccination. The AIS makes use of an algorithm VACCINE-AIS that identifies the best optimal solution from a given number of anti-bodies and antigens (weak or malfunctioning cells).

The core concept of AIS is boosting the immune system by injecting a vaccine that will stimulate the antibodies to quickly learn and locate weak or malfunctioning cells called the antigens. This process of location is called the optimization problem, the antibodies are the decision points in the immune system and the antigens are the solutions that the immune system are looking for.

An AIS application - AIS create or exhange antibodies to detect spam emails

Originally the AIS project was designed for data mining, anomaly detection and the like, however other research fields have shown interest in the AIS to use it for medical imaging (fMRI), power stabilizer and fault estimation, routing misbehavior detection and email spam filtering applications.

Click here to read more about Artificial Immune System and VACCINE-AIS algorithm.

swarm intelligence theory

Ants are by nature intelligent little creatures that work together to locate food and overcome threats. They traverse a seemingly single path, in one continuous line. Similarly, digital ants were used by computer scientists to locate the threats to computer security.

Swarm intelligence is the new technology in overcoming digital threats in the network security. Digital ants swarm over a virus or worms, self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorized use of machines and report the location of the infection to sentinels. It works best on large networks like in the government, universities and large corporations.

Swarm intelligence's concept is to deploy about 3,000 different types digital ants. As they move about to search for threats, they leave scented trails for the rest of the digital ants to follow. When one or more ants find threats, they are programmed to leave a stronger scent for all the digital ants to swarm over the threat in less than a time, this marks the site of infection. Once located, the marked site is then reported to a software 'sentinel' which in turn report to network 'sergeants' that are directly monitored by humans.

Click here to read more about Network Security and Swarm Intelligence.

This is Gordon, the robot operated exclusively by living rat brain neurons

It is somewhat very unlikely to see a robot operate autonomously without any artificial intelligent systems integrated in its circuitry. However, in the edge of our imagination, two researchers, Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley from the University of Reading in UK, actually made a wheeled robot move using a rat's brain, nothing artificial.

About 300,000 neurons from a rat fetus' brain were extracted and cultured in a nutrient broth. Similarly, the neurons produced electrical impulses, and these electrical activity were then connected to an output device of the robot's sensor. During the actual experiment, it was proven that the neurons really made the robot move around an enclosed area. (see video)

The main purpose of this research is to understand how the brain functions given a specific stimulus and how the behavior of robots can differ using either a rat or a human brain . "By observing how the cultured neurons respond to stimulation could improve our understanding of neurological conditions such as epilepsy", Warwick said.

Upon completion of this experiment, the researchers will make a model out of human brain neurons to get a better understanding on the human brain-related diseases like alzheimer's.

Click here to read the full "Biological Brain (of a Rat) Controls a Wheeled Robot: A Breakthrough to Alzheimer's and Partkinson" story.