What's up in
computer science
Quantized Columns
What Does It Mean for AI to Understand?
It’s simple enough for AI to seem to comprehend data, but devising a true test of a machine’s knowledge has proved difficult.
combinatorics
Mathematician Hurls Structure and Disorder Into Century-Old Problem
A new paper shows how to create longer disordered strings than mathematicians had thought possible, proving that a well-known recent conjecture is “spectacularly wrong.”
artificial intelligence
AI Researchers Fight Noise by Turning to Biology
Tiny amounts of artificial noise can fool neural networks, but not humans. Some researchers are looking to neuroscience for a fix.
information theory
Researchers Defeat Randomness to Create Ideal Code
By carefully constructing a multidimensional and well-connected graph, a team of researchers has finally created a long-sought locally testable code that can immediately betray whether it’s been corrupted.
explainers
How Quantum Computers Will Correct Their Errors
Quantum bits are fussy and fragile. Useful quantum computers will need to use an error-correction technique like the one that was recently demonstrated on a real machine.
Q&A
Her Machine Learning Tools Pull Insights From Cell Images
The computational biologist Anne Carpenter creates software that brings the power of machine learning to researchers seeking answers in mountains of cell images.
polynomials
Surprising Limits Discovered in Quest for Optimal Solutions
Algorithms that zero in on solutions to optimization problems are the beating heart of machine reasoning. New results reveal surprising limits.
Quantized Columns
The Uselessness of Useful Knowledge
Today’s powerful but little-understood artificial intelligence breakthroughs echo past examples of unexpected scientific progress.
neural networks
Neuron Bursts Can Mimic Famous AI Learning Strategy
A new model of learning centers on bursts of neural activity that act as teaching signals — approximating backpropagation, the algorithm behind learning in AI.