UPDATE: A Thousand Brains is now on sale. Visit AThousandBrains.com for more information.
In this month’s newsletter, we have an exciting book announcement, updates on events and research meetings, hiring news, and more.
Jeff Hawkins’ New Book, A Thousand Brains
Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of Numenta, has a new book titled A Thousand Brains. It will be released on March 2, 2021 and is available now for pre-order. A Thousand Brains tells the story of the advances he and the team made that led to the ground-breaking discovery of how the brain understands the world and what it means to be intelligent. The book also details how The Thousand Brains Theory will impact the future of machine intelligence and what an understanding of the brain says about the threats and opportunities facing humanity.
In his foreword, Richard Dawkins calls the book “brilliant” and “exhilarating”. Having read the book, I agree and think that will be a common reaction. As the release date gets closer, we’ll share more updates, including a planned video series with Jeff discussing the contents. But you don’t have to wait. You can place your order today.
Numenta Events
With events moving exclusively online this spring, Numenta has been busy participating in a number of virtual artificial intelligence and machine learning conferences. Though we miss the ability to have in-person discussions, we enjoy the fact that more people are able to attend, regardless of location. Below are highlights of some recent events, with links to the recordings.
Our Brains@Bay Meetup group has been growing. Brains@Bay is designed to foster the study and development of machine learning algorithms heavily inspired by neuroscience empirical and theoretical research. In May, the topic was Predictive processing in brains and machines and in June, we focused on Lateral connections in the neocortex. If you haven’t already, join the Brains@Bay Meetup group so you can be notified when our next meetup is scheduled. You can also join Brains@Bay on Slack to participate in ongoing discussions on a number of brain-related topics.
In June, our VP Research Subutai Ahmad gave a presentation at the CVPR 2020 Workshop on Continual Learning in Computer Vision. His talk, “Sparsity in the neocortex, and its implications for continuous learning,” is available on demand on our YouTube channel. We’ve also posted the slides for those interested.
We’re Hiring
Are you experienced in marketing communications, interested in AI and machine learning, and eager to be part of the next generation of computing? We’re looking for a Marketing Associate to join our team and help us tell the story of how we are advancing machine intelligence through neuroscience. The ideal candidate has 1-2 years’ experience, which may include part-time and summer work. If you or someone you know is interested, please review the desired qualifications and apply for the position here.
Update on Research Meetings
Since the passing in May of our community manager Matt Taylor, we have not been live-streaming our research meetings. However, we continue to record them and make them available on our YouTube channel. We have been so touched to read the many tributes that poured in on Matt’s memorial site.
Cortical.io Introduces Contract Intelligence with Semantic Search
Our Natural Language Understanding partner, Cortical.io, announced a new release of Cortical.io Contract Intelligence, an AI-based solution for enterprises that need to review and manage large amounts of contracts and other legal documents. You can read more about their announcement, including how companies like Unum are using the solution, here.
Thank you for continuing to follow Numenta.
Christy Maver
VP of Marketing
Christy Maver • VP of Marketing