The Human Brain and Artificial Learning: A Convergence of Information Processing Systems

It has all been a bit too exciting for seriousness and too intense for art, as scientists and engineers alike have been dazzled by the remarkable similarities between human brain function and artificial learning systems. The integration of biological and artificial information processing is one of the most fascinating chapters of our view of intelligence. In this work, we further our previous investigations of neural networks and learning mechanisms by studying the striking correspondence between biological and artificial learning systems. Think about a library in which books are constantly being moved about and reorganised according to such properties as frequency of use and their mutual dependencies. The essence of both human memory and artificial learning systems is that they are dynamic, adaptive networks that constantly refine their organisation according to experience and usage patterns - this is captured in this analogy. Just as the classification system of a library allows one to retrieve books efficiently, both biological and artificial systems compute elaborate methods for storing and accessing information.