Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM) A new computational paradigm based on cortical theory Jeff Hawkins May 10, 2006 IBM

Today’s PDA Market Indicator Pipe Dream Driven By Greed Mother Of All Markets

Today’s Cognitive Computing Indicator Any Moment Now Not in our Lifetime

Not in our lifetime Decades of effort Not much success AI neural networks fuzzy logic 5th generation project decade of the brain Not much success vision, language, robotics Brain is very complex

Not in our lifetime Any moment now Decades of effort Not much success AI neural networks fuzzy logic 5th generation project decade of the brain Not much success vision, language, robotics Brain is very complex Any moment now Neocortex: Fast Flexible Robust 100 years of data Anatomical, physiological Mathematics Common cortical algorithm Cortical Theory (HTM)

World Senses HTM/Cortex People Cars Buildings Words Songs Ideas patterns World Senses HTM/Cortex

“Causes” “Beliefs” World Senses HTM/Cortex People Cars Buildings Words Songs Ideas cause1 0.22 cause2 0.07 cause3 0.00 cause4 0.63 cause5 0.00 cause6 0.08 patterns World Senses HTM/Cortex

1 Discover causes in the world 2 Infer causes of novel input HTM Causes Representations of Causes What does an HTM do? 1 Discover causes in the world 2 Infer causes of novel input 3 Predict future 4 Direct motor behavior

HTMs use a hierarchy of memory nodes Belief Sensory data

HTMs use a hierarchy of memory nodes Beliefs Sensory data Each node: Discovers causes (of its input) Passes beliefs up Passes predictions down

HTMs use a hierarchy of memory nodes Beliefs Sensory data Each node: Discovers causes (of its input) Passes beliefs up Passes predictions down Each node: Stores common sequences Changing sensory data forms stable beliefs at top Stable beliefs at top form changing sensory predictions

1) Why does hierarchy make a difference? 2) How does each node discover and infer causes?

Why does hierarchy make a difference? Shared representations lead to generalization and efficiency

Why does hierarchy make a difference? Shared representations lead to generalization and efficiency HTM hierarchy matches spatial and temporal hierarchy of causes in world

Why does hierarchy make a difference? Shared representations lead to generalization and efficiency HTM hierarchy matches spatial and temporal hierarchy of causes in world Belief propagation techniques ensure all nodes quickly reach mutually compatible beliefs

Belief Propagation 90% cat 80% woof 70% pig image 20% meow CPT 80% woof 20% meow 70% pig image 30% cat image

Why does hierarchy make a difference? Shared representations lead to generalization and efficiency HTM hierarchy matches spatial and temporal hierarchy of causes in world Belief propagation techniques ensure all nodes quickly reach mutually compatible beliefs Affords mechanism for attention

How does each node discover causes?

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns Learn common sequences of spatial patterns

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns (things that happen at the same time are likely to have a common cause)

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns Common patterns: remember Uncommon patterns: ignore

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns Learn common sequences of spatial patterns

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns Learn common sequences of spatial patterns Common sequence: assign to cause Common sequence: assign to cause Uncommon sequence: ignore time

How does each node discover causes? Learn common spatial patterns Learn common sequences Use context from above in hierarchy

Do HTMs really work?

Simple HTM vision system (32x32 pixel) Level 3 Level 2 Level 1 4 pixels

Training images

Training images Correct Incorrect

Correctly recognized images

Numenta Plan Develop a detailed computational theory of neocortical function (HTM) On Intelligence (Times Books, 2004) HTM white paper, www.numenta.com Biological mapping paper, August 2006

Numenta Plan Develop a detailed computational theory of neocortical function (HTM) Develop a software platform for HTM applications

Numenta Platform : Fileserver Run time environment Dev Tools Node Processor Supervisor API Configurator Supervisor Trainer Net list Debugger Node Processor 2 Gigabit switch : Node Processor N Fileserver

Numenta Plan Develop a detailed computational theory of neocortical function (HTM) Develop a software platform for HTM applications Multiple processor/server architecture Optimized C++ routines Developer toolset with flexible scripting using Python Supports Linux + MacOS. Windows to come. Build a community of developers Early access partners, 2nd meeting end of May 2006 Beta release early 2007

Numenta Plan Develop a detailed computational theory of neocortical function (HTM) Develop a software platform for HTM applications Test HTM with a machine vision system

Numenta Machine Vision System Robust Object Recognition From Natural Images Recognition Task Defined Data collection in process Highly realistic 3D models and textures used to generate sequences 90,000 images and 102 sequences collected to date Each image has accurate alpha channel for programmatic 2D modifications

HTM Applications What humans find easy and computers hard vision, language, robotics many apps from security to self-driving cars extend with new senses, IR, sonar, radar… Discovering causes in unusual worlds geology, markets, weather, physics, genetics

HTM Capabilities Discover causes Inference Prediction Behavior Beyond biology Faster Larger Exotic senses

www.OnIntelligence.org www.Numenta.com (white paper posted this week)

Today’s Cognitive Computing Indicator Any Moment Now Not in our Lifetime

Thank _ _ _

world world HTM models world, including hardwired motor behaviors HTM Representations of motor behavior are auto-associatively paired with motor generators world motor

Hierarchical Temporal Memory Powerful, flexible, robust Can be applied to many problems - vision - language - robotics - manufacturing - business modeling - market modeling - network modeling - resource exploration - weather prediction - math, physics

? Discovering and inferring causes has proven to be Beliefs (of causes) ? Sensory data Discovering and inferring causes has proven to be very difficult, e.g. - visual pattern recognition - language understanding - machine learning

“What is conspicuously lacking is a broad framework of ideas within which to interpret these different approaches.” Francis Crick, 1979 Why would I want to do this, elaborate - science - commerce Lots of data, no theory I have solved/understand the problem conceptually.

Belief Propagation

Belief Propagation “maybe diagonal line, maybe vertical line”

Belief Propagation “maybe diagonal line, maybe vertical line”