Worry about project completion and you will never undertake anything. François I.
Today, I am very happy to have this opportunity to let you know about my project : Cortex Project.
So, what's Cortex Project ?
Cortex Project deals with artificial intelligence and artificial life. It aims to create a form of artificial life with natural intelligence.
By intelligence, I don't mean smart, the kind of thing you can talk to and that will fetch something for you on the internet. It will rather be a synthetic intelligence that can feel, think and act.
Right now, our main focus is a piece of software: an artificial brain that we call Cortex.
What's different about Cortex Project ?
Most people working in the AI field are developing behaviors for their robots. They write programs that make the robot move, programs that make the robot speak, programs that make the robot keep track of a red ball (this one seems to be a "must have"), programs that even make the robot recognize faces.
But there are many problems with this approach. First, you cannot write a program about everything. The robot is missing a generic and systematic way of creating new behaviors. Secondly, these robots move without learning first, speak without understanding a word of what they say, track the red ball without knowing why, recognize your face if you're facing the camera but not if you're sideway.
Our goal with the Cortex Project is to create a robot that feels, and not only through sensors, but also feels pleasure and pain, a robot that discovers and learns by itself, a robot that understands what he is doing, a robot that does not need to be programmed about everything. And finally, a robot that can imagine and dream.
We don't claim that our approach is new, nor revolutionary. Many people throughout the world may have worked on such concepts. But, I have not heard of any tremendous outcome in this field yet. Companies are still programming robots that track the red ball. So I guess it is worth trying.
Who is inspiring us ?
I can name two persons. Jeff Hawkings for his general approach of the AI and Hod Lipson for his ideas on robot movement learning.
Is it only software or also hardware ?
The project is 100% software right now. The idea is that Cortex can be adapted to any piece of hardware with little effort.
When did it start ?
The decision to start the project was made somewhere in the year 2008.
We chose trac and svn as our software development tools. First commit is 3 years old now.
Who is behind the project ?
The project team is made of two engineers. My brother and myself.
My brother is a software engineer. He is a complete fanatic of Apple since adolescence and works in a company that makes security programs for Apple computers.
I am a system engineer in a railway company. I design automatic pilots for metro applications.
We work on Cortex Project on our free time.
We live in Paris, France.
Stay tuned for more information very soon !
