Wolfram has unveiled ImageIdentify, a 'Artificial Intelligence' that can identify any image you give it.
The software program was unveiled on founder Stephen Wolfram's blog along with a fascinating account of the process that were involved to reach this point.
After years of trial and error, Wolfram and his team were able to create what they describe as a form of artificial intelligence that can analyse an image in far more detail than simply looking at the pixels.
We'd like to try and explain just how it works, but if you've ever used Wolfram Alpha, you'll know that the algorithms at work here and -- rather worryingly -- sometimes beyond even Wolfram himself.
"It’s hard to say meaningful things about much of what’s going on inside the network. But if one looks at the first layer or two, one can recognize some of the features that it’s picking out. And they seem to be remarkably similar to features we know are picked out by real neurons in the primary visual cortex."
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One of the most impressive features about the software is its ability to employ machine learning. Everytime the system gets it wrong it'll ask a human to explain what it is instead. It'll then take that lesson and apply it to not only the same image in future, but cross-reference that with possibly similar images.
Wolfram says: "It’s satisfying after all these years to see this kind of artificial intelligence actually working. But more than that, when you see ImageIdentify respond to a weird or challenging image, there’s often a certain “aha” feeling, like one was just shown in a very human-like way some new insight—or joke—about an image."
Wolfram Alpha is probably the company's most well-known product. As a 'computational knowledge engine' the software goes beyond being simply a search engine for the web.
Capable of understanding questions, dialect, context and more, it's a system that can answer questions based on constant learning.