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This is really interesting work, but I feel like the way the article summarizes it is getting it wrong. First Single Device To Act Like a Neuron One thing tha
by lacker 6y ago
This is really interesting work, but I feel like the way the article summarizes it is getting it wrong.
First Single Device To Act Like a Neuron
One thing that’s kept engineers from copying the brain’s power efficiency and quirky computational skill is the lack of an electronic device that can, all on its own, act like a neuron. It would take a special kind of device to do that, one whose behavior is more complex than any yet created.
This is just getting it wrong. Modern neural networks run as vectorized operations on a GPU. They are efficient because they do not use a single device to act like a single neuron, they can do massively parallelized work by optimizing for the hardware we have. If we had memristors, it doesn't seem like GPUs are the first thing they'd replace. More likely they would replace some sort of memory, since what makes them unique is storing information rather than performing analog operations faster.
- quicklyfrozen 6y agoThe brain is still way more efficient and parallel then a GPU (e.g. 12W compared to 280W), so being able to duplicate it closer sounds like a pretty compelling advancement.
- p1esk 6y agoThis has nothing to do with "modern neural networks". When they say "neuron" they mean an actual biological neuron. The main application for this device type is brain simulations.
- k__ 6y agoHasn't this been debunked: https://www.quantamagazine.org/neural-dendrites-reveal-their-computational-power-20200114/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/neural-dendrites-reveal-their...
- p1esk 6y ago?
- tsimionescu 6y agoProbably even a bacteria, and even an organelle inside one, is doing computation that a memristor can't. Comparing a memristor with a neuron is laughable.
- p1esk 6y agoComparing a bacteria with a neuron is laughable.
- tsimionescu 6y agoYes, that was part of the point: memristor < bacteria < neuron (reading < as "much much less computationally powerful").
- skummetmaelk 6y agoModern NNs run like that because all we had was a hammer so we tried as hard as possible to make the NNs look like nails.