This artificial intelligence is designed to be mentally unstable
This artificial intelligence is designed to be mentally unstable

This artificial intelligence is designed to be mentally unstable

DABUS is a new type of AI that paves the way for smarter machines. Nothing new there – but this machine-learning system is different. DABUS, short for “device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified Sentience”, is deliberately created to be mentally unstable.

Since the 90s, computer scientist Stephen Thaler has been injecting noise into a special neural network to generate novel ideas. Thaler, CEO of Missouri-based Imagination Engines, calls this module an Imagitron. The stream of creativity is assessed by a second network called a Perceptron, which provides feedback to improve ideas. This AI approach of neural networks playing off each other has been adopted by Facebook, Google and others – under the name “generative adversarial networks” – as a method of creating images that look authentic to human observers.