Google scientists find evidence of machine learning
June 25, 2012, 8:29 PM, by Steven Musil

A neural network created by connecting 16,000 computer processors appears to support biologists’ theories on how the human brain identifies objects.

Google scientists working in the company’s secretive X Labs have made great strides in using computers to simulate the human brain… the lab created a neural network for machine learning by connecting 16,000 computer processors and then unleashed it on the Internet. Along the way, the network taught itself to recognize cats.

To find the cats, the team fed the network thumbnail images chosen at random from more than 10 billion YouTube videos. The results appeared to support biologists’ theories that suggest that neurons in the brain are trained to identify specific objects.

“We never told it during the training, ‘This is a cat,'” Google fellow Jeff Dean told the newspaper. “It basically invented the concept of a cat.”