Researchers try to recreate human-like thinking in machines

The LGI network’s architecture. Credit: Qi and Wu. 

Ingrid Fadelli
Techexplore.com

Researchers at Oxford University have recently tried to recreate human thinking patterns in machines, using a language guided imagination (LGI) network. Their method, outlined in a paper pre-published on arXiv, could inform the development of artificial intelligence that is capable of human-like thinking, which entails a goal-directed flow of mental ideas guided by language. 

Human thinking generally requires the brain to understand a particular language expression and use it to organize the flow of ideas in the mind. For instance, if a person leaving her house realizes that it's raining, she might internally say, "If I get an umbrella, I might avoid getting wet," and then decide to pick up an umbrella on the way out. As this thought goes through her mind, however, she will automatically know what the visual input (i.e. raindrops) she observes means, and how holding an umbrella could prevent getting wet, perhaps even imagining the feeling of holding the umbrella or getting wet under the rain.

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