Two-Point Neurons-Inspired Economic and Ethical Neuromorphic Co-Design (TREND)
A new form of AI chip
As an R&D Creator in the ARIA's Nature Computes Better opportunity space, the TREND project at the University of Stirling aims to develop a new form of AI chip that is economical and, when guided by its owners’ needs and values, empowers individuals to make more informed judgments.
There is convergent validity among recent cellular neurobiological discoveries, high-resolution modelling, and biologically plausible simulations that pyramidal two-point cells operate in different modes. These modes include slow-wave sleep, the typical wakeful state (common sense), and imaginative thought. This suggests that cellular mechanisms could be embodied in machines to enable cognitive capabilities that are effective and economical.
Going beyond the oversimplified 20th-century neuroscience
Going beyond the oversimplified 20th-century neuroscience concept of pyramidal Point Neurons (PNs)—upon which current brain theories, AI, and neuromorphic hardware are based—we unlock the revolutionary computational potential of the recently discovered Two-Point Neurons (TPNs) in the mammalian neocortex, identified as fundamental for optimal learning and processing in the brain. TPNs are suggested to be the hallmark of conscious processing (J. Aru et al., Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2020, J. F. Storm, Neuron, 2024) and their dysfunction is associated with intellectual learning disabilities (D. Nelson et al., Developmental Neuroscience, 2021; A. Granato et al., Neuroscience & Biobehavioural Reviews, 2024).
AI at less than 1/1000 of the cost
TREND algorithms aim to achieve AI at less than 1/1000th of the cost by mimicking TPNs (both their function and structure).
Application Areas:
Robots; Speech; Language; Computer Vision
Funding
This project is funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA). ARIA is an R&D funding agency created to unlock technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone. Created by an Act of Parliament and sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, ARIA funds teams of scientists and engineers to pursue research at the edge of what is scientifically and technologically possible