US researchers develop devices to allow AI to work without connecting to internet

Researchers at the University of Central Florida (USA) are working on developing new devices aimed to allow artificial intelligence (AI) to work without connecting to the internet. Such devices would enable various AI applications (e.g. from Siri and Alexa to robots and other advanced systems) to work in remote regions or even in space. The researchers focus on developing very small and compact AI circuitry that various devices can rely upon without needing an internet connection. So far, the team has developed neuromorphic (brain-like) devices that are placed upon small, rectangular chips about an inch wide. The engineering and nanoscale materials used for these chips ‘allow for parallelism and in-memory computing, similar to the brain, required for AI and unsupervised learning’. Future work will focus on building networks with the devices to enable new applications such as image recognition. It is estimated that the new chips will be embedded into technology in the next ten years.