The Goof Button

Man's genius has devised an impressive variety of electronic brains that solve impressively complicated problems at lightning speeds. Some can be taught to play commendable chess, translate languages (though poorly) and compose music. For all their versatility, however, they remain incorrigible simpletons; before they can solve the simplest problem, their human masters must laboriously explain--in a setting-up process called programing--just what the computers are expected to do. This week Raytheon Co. of Lexington, Mass.. proudly claimed an electronic brain which, according to its developer, can at least profit by its own mistakes.

"We have not tried to duplicate the neural networks of the human brain," says Richard Witt, 35, chief of advanced development for Raytheon's communication and data-processing operation. "Rather, we have duplicated the human learning process--experience, trial and error, correlation of new facts with past experience." The Cybertron K-ioo gets some outside help: it is equipped with a "goof button," which a human tutor presses whenever the machine makes a mistake. Accepting this advice stolidly, the Cybertron thereafter does not repeat the error.

One of the machine's first tests was to distinguish sonar signals bounced off a submarine from those bounced off a porpoise, the ocean floor, or schools of fish. Even an ordinary computer could solve the same problem, but only after a tedious programing telling it exactly how. The Cybertron was merely fed a variety of sounds --several thousand--and after some diligent work by Witt on the goof button, it soon learned to discriminate infallibly. The Cybertron responds by flashing lights on its console, can give not only "yes" (the submarine) and "no" (the porpoise) answers but a broad variety of "maybes" (sounds like a sub).

Cybertron's adaptive intelligence does not end there. Having learned how to solve a given problem, it slips the answer to a tenacious portion of itself called AIDE (for Adapted Identification Decision Equipment), thus clearing its own mind for further study. AIDE never forgets. Raytheon is working on a more sophisticated version of the K-100 designed to control traffic, forecast weather, interpret electrocardiograms. Says Dr. Claude Shannon. Donner Professor of Science at MIT: "The Cybertron appears to be an important advance in an extremely important area of research."

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