Extra talk on the 23rd.

[Rudolf Nico Penninkhof]

Hello Everybody!

You may remember me from the second presentation at the first GTNL meeting in Rotterdam. This time Gerald was looking for software demonstrations or other additional talks for the next meeting on the 23rd. So this time I've decided to discuss the work of one of my "software-heroes", Stephen Thaler.

I'll discuss the workings of his software, as described on his company's website: http://imagination-engines.com/

His software uses Neural networks to generate novel and interesting ideas, and I'll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the aproach he used. Here's a quote from the site:  In 1975, our founder, Dr. Stephen Thaler discovered a truly significant scientific principle, that if the connection weights between neurons within a trained artificial neural network were agitated by just the right amount, the network would produce very plausible yet novel concepts and plans of action generalized from the neural network's cumulative learning." 

Dr. Thaler further developed his software, and used it to create a multi-million dollar company and his work has been praised by some leading scientists, I quote: "NASA's chief scientist and visionary, Dr. Dennis Bushnell was praising the work of a small St. Louis based company called Imagination Engines. As part of his "Future Warfare ca. 2025" talk, he discussed the Creativity Machine Paradigm as "AI's Best Bet" at creating human to trans-human level intelligence in machines."

I will discuss how the software works, and how we could use the concepts to further develop artificial life software in order to allow a software system to evolve towards a high level of intelligence. I aim for a talk of about 30 minutes, including discussion. Unfortunately the software isn't completely available for demonstrations, but the concepts that are used are nonetheless very intriguing, and could be used in artificial life systems.

I hope to see you all there!

Rudolf.