"You’re taking this to the next level with how it thinks, how it learns, and how it reacts …the simulated neural networks you’re creating through this can apply to this [robot] – it’s just a great visualization –but of course this applies to thousands of things."

Major players operating in the
neuromorphic computing market include
IBM Corp.(U.S.), HP Corp. (U.S.), Samsung Electronics Ltd. (South Korea),
Intel Corp. (U.S.), HRL Laboratories, LLC (U.S.), General Vision Inc. (U.S.), Applied Brain Research Inc. (U.S.), and BrainChip Holdings Ltd. (U.S.).

The typical CPUs most smartphones use
could never handle a system like Siri on the device. But Dr. Chris Eliasmith, a theoretical neuroscientist and co-CEO of Canadian AI startup Applied Brain Research, is confident that a new type of chip is about to change that.

Spaun […] stands apart from other attempts to simulate a brain, such as the ambitious Blue Brain Project, because it produces complex behaviours with fewer neurons.

But the point of Spaun is not to build an artificial brain either. It’s a test-bed for neuroscience—a platform that we can use
to understand how the brain works. Does Region X control Function Y? Build it and see if that’s true. If you knock out Region X, will Spaun’s mental abilities suffer in a predictable way? Try it.

The system is explicitly designed for real-world applications. On a five-year timescale, says Boahen, “We envision building fully autonomous robots that interact with their environments in a meaningful way, and operate in real-time while [their brains] consume as much electricity as a cell phone”.